Sesame balls ~ Jian Dui 煎堆. In this video, I will teach you how to make Chinese fried sesame balls (aka Jian dui, 煎堆). You will learn how to make the traditional ones with red bean. Those sesame balls usually are served to enjoy between savory dim sum dishes with various sizes.

For those of you who have not tasted one, you must think it is crispy from its puffy outlook. The outer layer is coated in sesame seeds which are crisped up by frying in hot oil. However, its uniqueness stemmed from its chewiness which is the main criterion for a good piece of sesame. You can have Sesame balls ~ Jian Dui 煎堆 using 9 ingredients and 11 steps. Here is how you achieve it.

Ingredients of Sesame balls ~ Jian Dui 煎堆

It's of Small bag of sesame seeds.
You need 1 cup of water.
You need 200 g of glutinous rice flour.
It's 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.
You need 2 tablespoons of sugar (heaped).
Prepare of Filling.
It's 100 g of chinese red beans (don’t mix this up with azuki beans.
You need 2 tablespoons of sugar (heaped).
It's 2 cups of water.

Jian dui is a type of fried Chinese pastry made from glutinous rice flour. The pastry is coated with sesame seeds on the outside and is crisp and chewy. Inside the pastry is a large hollow, caused by the expansion of the dough. Whenever I had yum cha (or Chinese dim sum) with my family, one of my favourites is sesame balls!

Sesame balls ~ Jian Dui 煎堆 instructions

Soak the red beans in cold water for 8 hours minimum, the longer you soak these, the easier to cook. I used 200g beans but after doing this, I realised I barely used any filling! I don’t like too much red bean :).
Boil the red beans in two cups of water and lower the heat once boiled. Cook these for 40 mins or so until soft..
Remove the water and smash the beans in a blender or by hand using a pestle and mortar. I used both :).
Put the smashed beans back into the pan and add in a table spoon of sugar. Cook this on low heat until it forms a paste. Add more sugar if you want it sweeter. I think you can make it more wet by adding water and sugar. But I liked mine like this..
Boil a pot of water and Take four table spoons of the glutinous flour and add a tiny bit of water until a dough forms. Add more flour or water as necessary. This should be a smallish dough. Once the pot of water has boiled, cook this small dough for 3 minutes. Turn it and cook the other side after 1.5mins. Have a small bowl of cold water ready as you’ll need to dunk this dough in there after. Take out after three minutes in total, cooking both sides and rest in the cold water..
Place the rest of the flour, baking powder in a mixing bowl. Take the smallish dough from the water and break this up in the flour mix. Knead and add water to make a big dough. Continue kneading until it is no longer sticky..
Roll the dough into a log and divide in to 20 even pieces. Roll these into small balls. Using your thumb, push down the dough and add a small bit of the red bean. Close the dough over the red bean and roll into a ball. Repeat until all balls are filled with red bean.
Using two separate bowls, put cold water in one and the sesame seeds in the other. Dip the ball in water first and then roll in seeds. Repeat..
Heat a small deep pot with oil until the oil is very hot. the oil level needs to be enough so that the balls can float once ready in the pot. Add the balls to the pot.
The balls will start to float, push the balls down and lower the heat to medium to avoid burning the sesame and balls. Push the balls down and keep doing this. The balls will increase in size. Repeat going round clockwise with each ball. You may need to remove one or two balls from the pot if you start to struggle with space like I did..
Have a wire rack ready to drain the oil off. The sesame balls are ready! Enjoy! I left mine to cool down on a rack :).

Never thought I would learn or know how to make them as I used to be so busy with work and life matters back then. Anyway, here's the recipe for my air fried sesame balls. Sesame balls (Chinese: 芝麻球; pinyin: zhīmáqíu) is a kind of fried Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour and sesame seeds. It also called Jian Dui (Chinese: 煎堆; pinyin: jiānduī; Cantonese Yale: jīndēui; literally: 'fried pile'). This dessert is covered with sesame seeds and is tasty crispy.