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

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Mia Bakes: Nian Gao Mochi Balls

Finally, it's Lunar New Year! How's everyone's CNY celebrations so far? Mine has been a #cheatdayeverday since CNY eve till date, so I'll probably have ALOT catching up to do after my CNY break is over (starting tomorrow). 

Other than stuffing myself silly with the usual CNY goodies like fried hae bee hiam (especially so this year, somehow), pineapple tarts and kueh bangkit, there's always one particular CNY goodies that I absolutely MUST eat every year. 

NIAN GAO!

Nian Gao (directly translated as Year's Cake) is actually a sweeten rice cake the Chinese usually eats during our Lunar New Year. It's either eaten freshly steamed, or sliced and deep fried in normal flour batter or sandwiched between thinly sliced yam or sweet potato, battered and then deep fried. 

Loads of refined sugar, carbs, and fats! What a glorious yummy snack! 

Yes, #fatedieme I know. Don't rub it in.

This year, I've decided to at least cut down on some of the fats and bake my nian gao instead, by marrying it with another of my favourite snack, MOCHI!

First, let's start by cutting the nian gao into roughly 1.5cm small cubes. Make sure you've refrigerated them so that they're harden up. They're a horror to slice if they're all fresh and soft. 

For the mochi bun/shell, you'll need: 

(recipe adapted from gingybite, makes 30 small mochi balls in total) 

180g glutinous rice flour

20g tapioca starch

1.5 tsp cinnamon powder 

(omit and replace with milk powder if you do not like cinnamon taste)

1 egg

60ml vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

100ml water + 20ml milk 

(120ml water if you're replacing cinnamon with milk powder)

Making the mochi dough is super easy, just dump ALL the ingredients into a big bowl and mix until it comes together into a soft dough. It should be soft, yet not liquidy, slightly sticky on your hands but still pliable. 

Divide the mochi dough into small balls of roughly 15 to 16g each and wrap a nian gao cube into each mochi dough to form small ping pong sized mochi-nian gao balls. Make sure there's no obvious exposure of the nian gao or else you'll just end up with nian gao-volcano mochi balls in the end. 

The mochi balls will not spread (at all) during baking, so feel free to space them closer together on your baking sheet. For crispier surface, brush the mochi balls with some water before sending them into the oven to bake at 180 degree Celsius for about 25 minutes, or until you see (some of) your mochi balls cracking open and lava nian gao bubbling through. 

Be sure to let it cool slightly before biting into one because it'll burn your tongue. But try not to wait until they turn completely cold as well, for the lava nian gao inside would have harden back up.

As the mochi shell is not sweeten at all, the sweetness of this snack totally depends on how sweet your nian gao is. And since the nian gao is store-bought, it also means you can't control how sweet this will get, unless you make your own nian gao as well. 

But who cares if it ends too sweet or not sweet enough? The texture of the crispy outer shell of the mochi paired up with the gooey chewy molten nian gao is more than enough to worth all the hassle of baking this cute little CNY treats!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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