Baymax Deco Tang Yuan (Natural Coloring)

Peanut Filling

1. Prepare the peanut filling about 1-2h in advance. You can also prepare the filling the night before. Mix the peanut powder and icing sugar together. Add in melted butter and mix well.
2. Place mixture into fridge for about 30 mins, for it to harden. Once hardened, portion out 15g of peanut filling. Roll into balls.
3. Place into tray or airtight container and freeze till ready for use.

Tang Yuan Dough

1. Place glutinous rice flour in a bowl. Add in boiling water all at once. Stir together using a pair of chopsticks. You will see lumps of flour coming together.
2. Now, add in the room temperature water in 3 additions. Mix well with each addition. If the dough is difficult to come together, you can use your hand to knead it slightly. The dough should be slightly stretchy, soft, and not sticky to hands.
3. Divide the dough into 22g x 10 balls. You can place the balls of dough into airtight container to prevent drying out, while you make the colored dough.
4. With the remaining dough, divide into 3 portions. Color 1 portion black and 1 portion red. This would be for the eyes and Christmas hat. Place the dough into airtight container to prevent drying out.
5. Once the dough is ready, check that the peanut fillings are hardened in freezer. It will be easier to wrap hardened fillings, than softened ones. Prepare a small bowl of water for wrapping.

Wrapping The Tang Yuan

1. Roll the dough into round ball, make an indentation with your thumb in the middle and continue thinning the dough till it resembles a “pocket” or hole.
2. Place filling into dough. Enclose and roll into a round ball. You can dab slightly with water on creased areas and the enclosed “lines” to have a smoother surface. Continue for the rest of the balls of dough. Remember to place the tang yuan dough into container (with lid) once done, to prevent drying out.
3. Once all balls of dough are rolled, we can do the details. Roll 2 small balls of dough for Baymax hands at the bottom of the tang yuan. Repeat for all tang yuan.
4. For the eyes, you can roll a long, thin dough of black. Cut out an appropriate length. Using a small brush, brush on a little water before sticking it on the tang yuan. Then stick on 2 small round black dough at each end of the long black dough. Repeat for all tang yuan.
5. For Christmas hat, roll a small ball of red dough. Roll slightly on 1 end so it becomes a tear-drop shape. Press slightly onto the other end of the tear-drop shape so it becomes a triangular shape. Using a brush, dab on some water before sticking to the top portion of the tang yuan. Repeat for all tang yuan.
6. For the little heart shape, if you’d like to add it onto the Baymax, simply roll out a tear-drop shape. Use a toothpick and press onto the wider end to make an indentation. Use your fingers to further shape it into a heart shape. Stick onto the tang yuan with a little water.

Sweet Soup

1. Bring 500ml of water to boil. Add in appropriate amount of rock sugar. I usually add in a handful of rock sugar (about 1/3 of rice bowl), and after the sugar dissolves, I will taste and if needed, add in more sugar. Once the sugar dissolves, off heat and add in osmanthus flowers to steep.

Cooking The Tang Yuan

1. To cook the tang yuan, bring a pot of water to roaring boil. Slowly add in tang yuan pc by pc. Depending on the size of your pot, make sure the tang yuan do not “overcrowd”. Eg: I cook about 4 pcs each time as my pot is not very big.
2. Ensure that the tang yuan do not stick to the bottom of the pot, and that they won’t knock into each other. Once the tang yuan floats to the surface of the water, it is ready.
3. Scoop tang yuan directly into the sweet soup and serve warm.