Sesame Balls with Date Filling

There are two reasons I love going to dim sum brunch on the weekend: the rice noodle rolls and the sesame balls. During this time of self-quarantine, we haven't been able to enjoy dim sum because you can't really do takeout dim sum. If you've never been, basically, dim sum is enjoyed literally a la carte. Adorable little ladies walk around with various carts of food; some carts have dumplings, some have soups, some have vegetables, some have meats. And you just ask for whatever you want, they just grab a dish out of their cart and place it in front of you, and then they stamp a little strip of paper on your table. There are a few different stamps indicating the price point of each dish and at the end, the cashier will tally everything up when you're ready to pay.

Anyway, sesame balls are one of the highlights of dim sum. I feel like they're supposed to be a dessert, but they're always so popular at our local place, we grab them whenever we see them because if we don't, because they're in such high demand, it'll be at least a half an hour before we see them on the bakery cart again. I was really missing them recently so I ended up trying to make them but put my own spin on them by filling them with a date filling and I actually ended up making these a second time without the sesame coating, mainly because I only have toasted sesame seeds and I felt like they were getting too dark in the oil.

Ingredients:
50 grams glutinous sweet rice flour
30 milliliters water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
¼ teaspoon + ¼ teaspoon salt
1 to 2 Medjool dates
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon + ¼ cup sesame seeds
+ oil for frying

Start by making the dough. Combine the rice flour, brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and water using a spoon until a cohesive dough forms.

To make the filling, soak the dates in hot water about 5 minutes just to soften them through and rehydrate them slightly.

Drain the dates and then add to a bowl and mash with the back of a spoon into a relatively smooth paste. The dates are already inherently v. sweet so you don't need much else, but I added a little honey, not just for the flavor but the stickiness. Also stir in ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. And that's the filling; done.

Divide the dough into five equal balls.

To form the pastry, roll the dough into a ball. Then, press your thumb into the center to create a tall bowl; "tall" meaning tall sides with a deep bowl. Add just a bit of filling to the center and then press the sides of the bowl together to seal the filling into the center and then re-roll the dough into a spherical shape.

Dip the dough balls into water and then roll around in a bowl of sesame seeds.

Fry the dough balls in a couple inches of water over medium heat. The oil shouldn't be screaming hot; I didn't actually temp my oil but I'd venture to guess that it was on the order of 275F. Keep them moving and rolling around constantly and use a spoon to baste the oil over the top. They'll start to puff and once they're golden brown, remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel to wick away any excess oil.

These sesame balls aren't quite the same as the real thing. I want to say that in authentic places, they're much larger and that does tend to change the texture a bit. However, these still had that telltale crisp exterior with a wonderfully chewy center and the nutty flavor of the sesame combined with the sweet sticky filling was really lovely.

Like I mentioned above, I also tried making these without the sesame coating and they were also quite moreish. These ended up taking on more of a donut hole-vibe.

Here's the recipe page: