Nyob Zoo!
I wanted to share with you a fun dessert you can make for any holiday party, event, and or occasion. These are glutinous rice balls that are filled with brown sugar, toasted sesame seeds & peanuts. They’re coated with fresh grated coconut to give it a little bit of texture. You can see similar glutinous rice balls like these in Thailand known as Khanom Tom, which are instead filled with palm sugar and shredded coconut. There’s also an Indonesian, Malaysian, Singapore, Brunei version known as Klepon, which are filled with just palm sugar. My take is inspired by the Korean rice cake version Ggul-tteok, which are filled with brown sugar and toasted sesame seeds. So this version has that similar filling compared to the Thai/Singapore/Indonesian one. The dough itself is usually made with just glutinous rice flour, water, or sometimes some coconut milk, but I’ll be adding rice flour and cooked starches like sweet potatoes to give it a softer texture and the natural color. When you eat the rice cake, the toasted sesame seeds and peanut brown sugar center will burst in your mouth while the outside is soft and chewy with a little coconut texture. It’s a super fun dessert to eat!
I’ll be showing you how to make it in 4 different shades using 4 different natural coloring ingredient, so you can have some fun with whoever you make it with. These rice balls are great to make with your kids, friends, and family. They’re also gluten free and vegan(without the honey)! So I hope you can give them a try. Enjoy and happy cooking!
Main Ingredients
Dry ingredients includes….
Glutinous rice flour: Gives the dough the chew
Rice flour: Gives the dough some stability
Sugar: For sweetness
Salt: To balance out the sweetness
To give the dough the natural coloring, use pumpkin/kabocha squash, purple sweet potato or ube, orange sweet potato, and pandan powder. I highly suggest using a cooked starch in the dough. Starch tenderizes the dough. Adding a cooked starch like potatoes, and pumpkin will keep the dough soft once it cooks and cools down. If you make this dough with just the glutinous rice flour/flour, water, salt, and sugar, once it cooks and cools down it will hardened the longer it sits. It’ll taste fine but textually a little different without the added starch.
For the pandan dough, I like to add plain cooked mashed potatoes with some pandan leaf powder. We’re trying to keep this all natural food dye. If you don’t want to buy pandan leaf powder, you can use pandan extract instead. Use about 1/4-1/2 tsp as needed. Refer to the recipe for the pandan extract measurements.
Cook the pumpkin, yams, potatoes and mash it really well and add it HOT into the dry mixture. Adding in HOT liquid will help bind the glutinous and rice flour a lot better vs using cold liquid.
The colors you get:
Grated purple yam: Purple
Orange sweet potato: Orange
Kabocha or pumpkin: Yellow
Pandan leaf powder: Green
TIP: When you’re not using the dough yet, make sure to wrap each dough in plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. 
For the brown sugar-toasted sesame seeds-peanut filling
Use a combination of white and black sesame seeds for different depth of flavor. Make sure to toast it well in a pan and place it in a mortar and pestle along with some roasted peanuts. Pound until it reaches your desire texture.
Once the filling is made, let’s start rolling. Grab about 1 Tbsp or as much of the dough as you like, roll it out flat, add the filling, press the filling firm while sealing the outside of the dough in to seal completely. Make sure it’s completely sealed so the filling doesn’t burst out when cooking. 
Here are all the finished filled and roll out ones in all 4 shades.
Get the grated coconut ready in a bowl. I like to add a little salt to give it some flavor. Make sure to mix it well and sit it aside while you cook the rice balls.
NOTE: You can use dry shredded coconut. I prefer the UNSWEETENED ones. But freshly grated coconut is texturally better and has a much more cleaner taste. I usually buy the frozen already grated coconut and just thaw it out before using it. 
Cook the rice balls in simmering water until it floats to the top. Once it floats to the top, let it continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes. Try not to cook the balls in extreme boiling water as it can cause the rice balls to burst open.
Scoop out the cooked balls and place it on a tray. Let it sit for 1 minute before coating it in the grated coconut. 
Coat the rice balls while they’re still sticky so the coconut can stick on.
And here we have it! 
Enjoy them while they’re fresh! It’s chewy on the outside and the filling is sweet and nutty.
Enjoy!
-Cindy Her (C.HerCreations)
Glutinous Rice Balls
Ingredients
For the brown sugar-toasted sesame seeds-peanut filling
- 1 cup brown sugar (198g)
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds (9g)
- 1 Tbsp toasted black sesame seeds (25g)
- 2 Tbsp roasted peanuts (25g)
- 1 Tbsp honey (21g)
For the grated coconut coating (enough for the 4 color batch)
- 12 oz freshly grated coconut (I used frozen (fresh) grated coconut) (Thaw before use)
- 1/4 tsp salt (2g)
For the pandan leaf powder version (color green)
- 150 grams glutinous rice flour
- 18 grams rice flour (2 Tbsp)
- 5 grams sugar (1 tsp)
- 2 grams salt (1/4 tsp)
- 2 Tbsp pandan leaf powder (16g) (I used Suncore Foods version)
- 150 grams HOT cooked plain mashed potatoes
- 1/2 cup HOT boiling water (118ml)
Alternative recipe if you don't have pandan leaf powder
- 150 grams glutinous rice flour
- 18 grams rice flour (2 Tbsp)
- 5 grams sugar (1 tsp)
- 2 grams salt (1/4 tsp)
- 150 grams HOT cooked plain mashed potatoes
- 1/2 cup HOT boiling water (118ml)
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp pandan extract (depending how strong you want it)
For the Ube version (color purple)
- 150 grams glutinous rice flour
- 18 grams rice flour (2 Tbsp)
- 5 grams sugar (1 tsp)
- 2 grams salt (1/4 tsp)
- 150 grams frozen grated purple yam (ube) [THAWED] (I used Simex brand)
- 3/4 cup water (177ml)
For the sweet potato version (color orange)
- 150 grams glutinous rice flour
- 18 grams rice flour (2 Tbsp)
- 5 grams sugar (1 tsp)
- 2 grams salt (1/4 tsp)
- 150 grams COOKED & HOT mashed sweet potatoes
- 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp HOT boiling water
For the Kabocha or pumpkin version (color yellow)
- 150 grams glutinous rice flour
- 18 grams rice flour (2 Tbsp)
- 5 grams sugar (1 tsp)
- 2 grams salt (1/4 tsp)
- 150 grams COOKED & HOT mashed kabocha squash or pumpkin
- 1 Tbsp boiling water (as needed) (you can always add or not add more depending on how the dough feels)
Instructions
For the brown sugar-toasted sesame seeds-peanut filling
- In a mortar in pestle, add in the toasted sesame seeds and peanuts. Pound until the sesame seeds and peanuts are grounded just to you liking. Add it into a bowl along with the brown sugar and honey. Mix well and set aside. This filling will make enough for 4-5 color batches of dough with a little leftover depending how much you fill.
For the grated coconut coating (enough for 4 color batches)
- Mix well and set aside.
For the pandan leaf powder version (color green)
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Then add in the HOT cooked plain mashed potatoes and hot boiling water. Mix well with a spatula first before going in with your hands. The hot water and hot mashed potatoes will help bind the dough together better than using cold water/cold mash potato. So the dough will be hot when kneading so be careful or wear cooking gloves to help you out as needed. When the dough becomes pliable (kinda like Playdoh), wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. Set it aside until you're ready to use it.
Alternative recipe if you don't have pandan leaf powder
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the pandan extract into the hot water and mix well. Add the hot pandan water and the HOT cooked plain mashed potatoes into the dry. Mix well with a spatula first before going in with your hands. The hot water and hot mashed potatoes will help bind the dough together better than using cold water/cold mash potato. So the dough will be hot when kneading so be careful or wear cooking gloves to help you out as needed. When the dough becomes pliable (kinda like Playdoh), wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. Set it aside until you're ready to use it.
For the Ube version (color purple)
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. In a small pot, add in the thawed grated ube and water. Cook on medium low heat until it thickens and bubbles. Pour immediately into the dry. Mix well with a spatula first before going in with your hands. The hot ube mixture will help bind the dough together better. So the dough will be hot when kneading so be careful or wear cooking gloves to help you out as needed. When the dough becomes pliable (kinda like Playdoh), wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. Set it aside until you're ready to use it.
For the sweet potato version (color orange)
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Peel and diced the sweet potato and boil it in water until soften. Mashed well and measure out 150grams to be used. Make sure to add it into the dry HOT. Add in the boiling hot water as well. Mix well with a spatula first before going in with your hands. The hot mixture will help bind the dough together better. So the dough will be hot when kneading so be careful or wear cooking gloves to help you out as needed. When the dough becomes pliable (kinda like Playdoh), wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. Set it aside until you're ready to use it.
For the Kabocha or pumpkin version (color yellow)
- Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Steam the kabocha squash or pumpkin until soft. Mashed well and measure out 150grams to be used. Make sure to add it into the dry HOT. Mix well with a spatula first before going in with your hands. Add 1 Tbsp HOT water as needed if the dough is too dry. The moisture of the dough will really depend on how watering the pumpkin and or kabocha is. So adjust the water as needed when you're kneading the dough. The hot mixture will help bind the dough together better. So the dough will be hot when kneading so be careful or wear cooking gloves to help you out as needed. When the dough becomes pliable (kinda like Playdoh), wrap it in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out. Set it aside until you're ready to use it.
FILLING AND COOKING THE BALLS
- For each color dough, take about 1 Tbsp of the dough, roll with the palm of your hands a little flat. Fill and press well with about 1/2 tsp of the brown sugar filling in the center. Seal the sides tight to cover up the filling. Roll with the palm of your hand to make a smooth rounded ball, making sure they're no cracks. Repeat until all the dough is filled and used up.
- Boiled the balls in hot simmering water. I cooked all these colored rice balls in two separate batches so I didn't overcrowd the pot. Try not to cook in extremely boiling water as it can cause the balls to burst with all that water pressure. So keep the water at a good simmer (at the state where it's almost going to boil) so the balls can cook well. Move the balls gently with a spatula so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan. It'll cook for about 4-5 minutes until you'll notice it starts floating to the top. Once it floats to the top, allow it to cook for another 2-3 minutes before removing them with a spider. Place it onto a tray and allow it to slightly cool for 1 minute before dipping each cooked rice balls into the freshly grated coconut. Coat well and set it on a serving dish. You might get some bursting rice balls and that's totally normal so don't panic! Enjoy them slightly warm or best at room temp!
