Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Fried Glutinous Rice Balls (Banh Cam & Banh Ran)

I've been wanting to make my own fried glutinous rice balls. I was actually craving for the one with syrup on it. The rice balls is like $0.75 each at the store....guess it's a lot cheaper to make my own. These taste pretty good. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The sweetness is just perfect. My first time making this snack too! Yummy yummy.....



Ingredients:

3 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 cup mashed yam (about 125 grm)
250 ml water
65 grams sugar (about 5 tbsp)
1 tsp baking powder
Sesame

Filling:

200 grams hulled mung bean
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour


Method:

1. Cook the mung bean with some water until tender. Remove excessive water and continue to cook until very soft. Take the mung bean out and use a potato rice to mash the mung bean.
2. Place the mung bean back in the pot and add in sugar. Mix well and continue to cook until dry. Slowly add in the all purpose flour until the mixture is thicker. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. While still warm, rub your hands with some flour and make the mung bean paste into small balls. It should be a size of half an egg or as small as you want. Let the mung bean balls to cool and place in refrigerator.

4. Mix the glutinous, rice flour, baking powder, and mash sweet potato together. Mix sugar in water and stir well. Then mix water with flour. Knead into a dough. (I used the bread maker to help me knead). Leave dough to rest for 2 hrs.

5. The dough should be soft but not wet to handle. Divide the dough into balls double the size of the mung bean ball.
6. Flatten the dough (see pic below) and place the mung bean in the middle. Wrap it up and roll it in the palm into a round ball. Then roll it on the sesame. Remember the skin should not be too thick.
7. Heat enough oil to to cover at least halve the rice balls. The heat should be medium and fry the rice balls slowly. With the heat on medium, the dough can slowly expand and not explode. Fry until fluffy and golden brown.

(Note: It'll be crispy while still warm. When the glutinous rice balls get soft, you can heat it in the oven and it will by crispy again.) You will have some mung bean balls left. You can save this and make more dough for it the next day or make sticky rice dumpling with it.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, yours come out nice and round. I've tried a recipe similar to this and the balls kept exploding in the oil. Do you know what I can do to prevent that ?

Kristy said...

Hi. The way to prevent the exploding is to fry it in low heat from the start. So while you make your rice balls, turn on the heat to low. Then place the rice ball in there when the oil is warm to hot. This is so there is time for the rice ball to cook and expland in side. Remember you need to roll the balls around when frying to prevent uneven color. I used low heat then turn to medieum heat toward the end.

Rice flour is also needed since this is to help keep it's shape.

Anonymous said...

I really like your recipe and directions. They seem to be easy and clear. I made the glutinous rice balls twice with a recipe a little different than yours and they didn't turn out nice and round. I used potato instead of yam and I fried mine in the electric fryer instead on stove top. I don't know if that made a difference.

Kristy said...

There should not be a difference. But you should fry in low or medium heat slowly so it have time to open. You can use a little more rice flour so it can hold it's shape after cooling. I didn't want to use too much rice flour since this will make it hard after cooling. But 1/2 cup should be ok.

Ravenous Couple said...

this is absolutely the best right out of the fryer, crunchy on the outside and soft and yummy on the inside! Yours look great!! Thanks for visiting our site so that we could discover yours!

Lory said...

We Filipinos call this buchi-buchi. Funny how, as I browse through your recipes, I discover that a lot of Filipino foods (especially snacks) probably came from Malaysian culture. Most of the recipes have been guarded secrets (because of business purposes), and now here they are staring me in the eyes, tempting me to go ahead and make them!
Thanks a lot for sharing your recipes and tips!

Lory said...

I meant to say Vietnamese! You are Viet, right?

Kristy said...

Hi Manang,

I'm actually Chinese...lol

TrucVy said...

I made this one time before, and it exploded like crazy. So I never attempt to make it again. Yesterday, I looked at your recipe and I tried it again. Everything looks good. No more explosion that I have to deal with. But the problem is when they cool; they are no longer in the ball shape. In fact, they were deflated. Very strange!!! However, they tasted yummy. But I don't know what went wrong? Any ideas?

Kristy said...

It could be not enough rice flour. The rice flour make it harder. You can add in more rice flour next time. I didn't want to add too much because it will be hard and super chewy if I add too much rice flour. Also, i think these you can heat it in the oven and it will crisp again. Hope this helps. It was my first time making it last time.:) Might have to work on it some more then.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Would the recipe be the same for the sugary glazed w/sesame seed Banh Ran? I want to try it without the mung bean filling. Please advise. BTW...great blog.
Thank you in advance.

Kristy said...

It is the same recipe but you will have to make the sugar glaze. I didn't measure when I was making it so I don't have the recipe for the glaze. If you don't like mung bean then you can use red bean. Not sure if it's good without the fillings. Remember not to make the dough too thick as it will not cook in the center and it will be hard.