Mia Bakes: Sweet Potato Mochi Nian Gao Balls

On my previous post on Portuguese Nian Gao Egg Tart (HERE), I've mentioned that I've baked two different nian gao snacks and so, here is the second one, sweet potato mochi nian gao balls!

For approximately 30 mochi nian gao balls, you'll need:

Approximately 1/3 of a medium sized nian gao

200 to 225g of purple sweet potato (peeled)

100g glutinous rice flour

1 tbsp corn flour

30g castor sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

(or other flavourless oil)

2.5 to 3 tbsp water

a pinch of salt

(recipe adapted from msyummylicious.asia)

Cut the nian gao into small cubes to your preference, depending if you'll like your mochi nian gao balls big or small. They need not be of the same size, as you can always stack a few of the "stray corner pieces" together into 1 ball. 

First up, chop your peeled sweet potato into large chunks and steam it for approximately 20 to 30 minutes until they're cooked and soft enough to mash. While still hot, mash them up with a fork.

Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a spatula or just with your hands (it's so much easier as the dough will be rather stiff) until everything comes together into a pliable dough. 

I suggest that you start off with just 2 tbsp of water first and add more if you find your dough too dry and crumbly. Final texture of the dough should be of playdough consistency, and doesn't stick to your hands at all.

If you're a little OCD, you might want to weigh your dough and divide them into equal pieces according to how many nian gao cubes you have, or you can just go free and easy like me, and eyeball everything. I even ended up with differing sizes of the mochi nian gao balls. 

So, either with your measured out portion or an eyeballed portion of the sweet potato dough, flatten it in between your palms and wrap a piece of the nian gao cube inside. Repeat until you've used up all your dough/nian gao cubes.

In a small pot, heat up some frying oil over the hob and fry the balls over medium heat until it just starts to brown. Remove from the oil and set aside to drain. After 1st round of frying, turn up the heat and re-fry the fried mochi nian gao balls over high heat for just a couple more seconds before removing from the oil. Drain off the access oil using paper towels and your fried sweet potato mochi nian gao balls are ready to serve!

These are oh-so-chewy, so sweet, and so addictive! And oh yeah, rather high in calories too, so make sure you don't over-snack on them. HEH! 

Till then,

Mia Foo