Yan's Sweet Rice Dumplings

Pot Scrubber's Note:

Glutinous or "sweet rice" has a texture unlike other rices. When ground into a flour and mixed with water, it makes an elastic dough that can be used to wrap other foods for frying, poaching, or steaming. Here it surrounds a nugget of sweetened peanut butter and the dumplings are served in a peanut based sauce. Recipe is from a Martin Yan cookbook. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 24 dumplings

Filling

• 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons unsalted peanuts, chopped
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups glutinous-rice flour
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 5 tablespoons cold water

Sauce

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

Directions:

1. Combine filling in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.
2. Measure rice flour into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour boiling water into it. Mix well with a fork until evenly moistened.
3. Add cold water and stir, adding a few more drops if necessary, until dough forms a ball.
4. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 5 minutes until smooth and shiny. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest 10 minutes.
5. Roll dough into an 18 inch long cylinder. Cut cylinder crosswise into 3/4 inch pieces. Dust palms with rice flour and roll each piece into a ball.
6. To shape each dumpling -- flatten a ball dough with a rolling pin to make a 2 1/2 inch circle; keep remaining dough covered to keep from drying.
7. Place 1/2 tsp filling in center of circle. Gather and pinches edges at the top to seal securely. Roll carefully between your palms to form a round ball. Cover filled dumpling with a damp cloth and repeat to fill remaining dumplings.
8. Cooking:.
9. In a large pot of boiling water, cook dumplings, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until dumplings float to the surface. Lift out dumpling with a slotted spoon and place in a colander to drain.
10. Combine sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until smooth.
11. Pour sauce onto a platter and place dumplings on top of sauce. Serve hot.

Reviews

[Shasha]

I've been looking high and low for this recipe and I finally found it! Thanks! These turned out great. I didn't do the sauce anymore (it was sweet enough as is) and will remember to chop the peanuts a little finer for the filling next time. I also put in more than 5 TB. of cold water to have a workable dough. I'd recommend rolling this in finely chopped peanuts or peanut powder after boiling to make it even more delicious!

[Aunt Cookie]

***** I LOVED this recipe! The dumplings are so chewy and yummy. I used to always watch Yan Can Cook as a kid and thought he was awesome, but this is the first recipe of his I've ever tried. I was not disappointed. I couldn't locate glutinous flour, so I just used a coffee grinder to make my own from uncooked sticky rice. It worked great. This was very similar to mochi that I've bought from the store...it was cool to make my own. One more thing - I got lazy at the end and didn't want to stuff any more rice balls, so I just boiled the rest without filling. They were good, too! Thanks for sharing.