I have always wanted to attempt to make this local Malaysian Chinese snack and so since I had crazy cravings (again) for deep fried food one night... instead of waiting for no one to bring me food...... :(
I decided to make these!
There are few versions of recipes with slight variations on how to make these. I usually choose the one which has the most precise steps?
Ingredients
1) 112 grams sugar + 118ml boiling water
2) 60 grams potato flakes + 118ml boiling water
3) 240 grams glutinous rice flour
4) 1 tablespoon rice flour
5) 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
6) 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
7) White sesame seeds (Enough to coat the sesame balls)
8) Frying Oil
9) Red bean paste*
(*To make the red bean paste, rinse the red bean, then boil the red bean with water for about 45-1 hour [you make need to refill the water during the process] until it is fully cooked. Turn off the stove. Mash the red bean and gradually add sugar to the level of sweetness according to your liking. You you have a blender, use it to blend so the paste will be even more fine. Return the red bean paste to the stove under low heat and stir the paste until it becomes sticky. Be careful about burning it! Once done, leave it aside.)
Steps
First, add ingredient (1) together, mix and set it aside.
Secondly, add ingredient (2) and stir it until fully incorporated . Potato flakes are instant potato mash. If you may do without this ingredient if you don't have it but apparently it helps to keep the sesame balls in shape even after they cool down.
Now add the glutinous rice flour, rice flour and baking powder, vegetable oil and ingredient (1) to the potato flake mixture. Start mixing using your favourite spatula!
A soft dough should slowly form. After that, you may use your hand to knead the dough together. The dough may be dry so you may add water one tablespoon at a time while kneading. Do not add too much water. You will know the dough is moist enough when you take a small amount of dough and you stretch it out, it does not crack. It should neither be too dry nor too wet.
Now the original recipe asks to rest the dough for 1 hour (cover the dough with cling film) but then again since I was making this at an ungodly hour, I only let it rest for around 20 minutes. #aintnobodygottimeforthat
Roll the dough into a log that is approximately 12 inches long, then cut them up into 12 small doughs.
Roll the red bean paste which you made into 12 balls.
Then take one of the small doughs, shape it into a bowl shape and add the red bean paste ball onto it. Seal it and shape it into a ball. Repeat the same thing for the other 11 sesame balls!
Then dip the ball into a bowl of water (or you may spray water on it) *so the sesame seeds can actually stick onto it* and then roll the ball in a bowl filled with white sesame seeds.
You can see my workstation in the photos above is quite messy since this was my first attempt in making these baboons.
Heat up the oil in a deep frying pan. Keep the heat at medium. Once the oil is heated up (you'll know it's hot enough when you place a chopstick into the oil, small bubbles form around it), chuck the sesame balls into the pan! Cook the sesame balls until they are evenly browned. Original recipe calls for 8-10 minutes but I took slightly longer than that.
AND YOU'RE DONE!!
THEY WERE SO YUMMYYYYYYYY :Q__________
So glad I am slowly learning how to make local Malaysian delicacies and I actually can't wait to have another crazy cravings night for some other new dessert/snacks/anything edible so I can share it here on my blog!
And again just to put a disclaimer out there, I am not a professional baker/cook. I do this purely out of passion and I am more than willing to help if you have any enquiries.
Thank you for reading and please try this recipe out! \(^_^)/
