Do you love fresh ginger and light refreshing desserts? Can you get your hands on a can of sweetened red bean paste and some glutinous rice flour from the local Chinese store? That’s all you need to make these amazingly delicious gluten-free red bean dumplings in just 20 minutes. You can add black or white sesame seeds to the mochi-like dough for extra taste and texture. I used to buy these typical Chinese dumplings frozen but homemade ones are so much better and not very sweet at all. So fast, so easy, so yummy! Plus the fresh ginger broth is delightfully refreshing and must be kind of heatlhy. 🙂
This is a typical and very common Chinese or Asian dessert. I was fortunate to have my ex-flatmate from Shanghai and various Chinese friends making it during Chinese New Year and other festivals. I also recently found some in Barcelona, in an authentic Chinese restaurant complete with basic wooden stools and very low prices. Heavenly and delicious (the dumplings not the wooden stools).
They’re not quite the same with canned red bean paste but still not too sweet, tasty and very convenient. If you’ve never tried them I recommend you do. And if you’ve had Japanese mochi you’ll notice the dough is similar. Personally I love these dumplings’ soft slightly springy dough texture and the taste of the red bean paste, perfectly set against the slightly sweet zingy ginger broth. It must be because it’s gluten-free, what with the rice flour and all, but it feels really light on the stomach. So let’s make this super fast and amazing dessert!
THE RECIPE
This is an adaptation of the lovely glutinous rice dessert dumplings in The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook. For my dumplings I had to use a little more water for the dough but less water in the ginger syrup. I also adapted the other quantities and tried white sesame seeds as well as black (the black seeds are attractive but the white ones are really tasty – both add a lovely subtle crunch).
As the Dumpling sisters say, you can play around with these dumplings and even use other fillings! I tried a few balls with Nutella and organic peanut butter but they were more delicate and didn’t marry as well with the ginger broth (aka syrup). The sweetened red bean paste I bought contains 60% red beans, sugar and water so it must be vegan (some brands contain animal fat apparently). It doesn’t taste too sweet but if you prefer there are many recipes online for homemade red bean paste.
Ingredients (for 15 or 16 balls, 2 servings – halve the quantities for an individual bowl or freeze half for later)
Ginger syrup
- 400ml/1 and a third cups water
- 4 to 6 slices of fresh ginger (peeled), to taste
- 2 teaspoons brown or golden caster sugar, to taste (you can also use maple syrup or honey)
Note: Oops, I wrote ‘taste’ before I realised it would be on top of my cartoon nose! Um… arty?!
Remember you can make a light ginger broth or simmer it longer to have it darker and stronger.
Dough
- 125g/1 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1 teaspoon white toasted sesame seeds or 1/2 teaspoon black toasted sesame seeds, to taste and optional
- 110ml/g water, at room temperature
Red bean filling
- 16 level teaspoons sweetened red bean paste (canned)
Don’t worry if your balls are a bit messy and have very small cracks – they clean up in the boiling water. 🙂
Eating and storing
Wait 5-10 minutes before eating because the broth and balls will be very hot. If you have too many put extra balls in the freezer on baking paper on a tray for an hour until frozen then transfer to a plastic bag or airtight tupperware container. Boil from frozen (it probably takes a little longer – about 10-15 minutes).
And share … I’m taking these to Free from Fridays hosted by Emma@Freefromfarmhouse. Please do visit her for some great ‘free-from’ recipes. And have some dumplings! 🙂
Hope you’ve enjoyed these red bean dumplings in ginger broth. Wishing you a refreshing and zingy end of the week and weekend ahead. With lots of happy baking, no-baking and eating of course. 🙂 Lili x
So nice! Reminds me of a Chinese festivity food.
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Thank you! You’re absolutely right… it’s a festival food in China. 🙂
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Looks (and sounds) great! I’ll def try!
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Thank you and that’s great Leticia! I’ll be interested to know how you like them… 🙂
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I love this dessert – or anything with bean paste. The recipe is so easy, and I think I will make some bean paste – I think the recipe is that good.
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Thank you Hilda! That’s very kind. This is my first bean paste dessert and I can see why you love the stuff. Must try to make a cake with it, and also make bean paste like you. Maybe you could tell me about a good recipe for it some time. 🙂
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Aww man I feel like having some now….
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Thank you Audrey, I’m glad these are inspiring you to eat some. And I hope you get to have some soon! 🙂
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Lol I better go and buy some
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🙂 Um.. or maybe make them? 😉
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Lol I don’t think I can right now but will save it for a rainy day and do it with my kids.
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I love you, Lili! These look amazing. Will have to attempt these soon – I love red bean paste treats.
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Aw thanks Vanessa! What a lovely comment … so pleased you’ll be trying them and to meet another red bean paste fan. 🙂
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I lived in Hong Kong and Japan. I think I was destined to love red bean paste. DD and I will give these a go v
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🙂 Wow you must have had some lovely desserts out there in HK and Japan Vanessa! Yum. Hope you’ll enjoy these ones too.. x
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Ooh, this sounds really interesting and I love the cartoons! #freefromfridays
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Thank you Emma and thanks for hosting Free from fridays. 🙂
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