Chinese desserts
Chinese desserts are built on beans, seeds and rice rather than butter and cream: sweet red-bean paste, black sesame, glutinous rice and delicate starch jellies, many tied to particular festivals. This guide gathers every Chinese recipe on DessertCat, from tangyuan to Hong Kong egg waffles.
All 9 Chinese desserts
ii. The Chinese dessert tradition
Chinese sweets are less a single tradition than a federation of regional ones. Cantonese cooking has its sweet soups (tong sui) and dim sum pastries; Shanghai and the Yangtze delta have glutinous rice dumplings and cakes; the north has wheat-based pastries and steamed buns. Sweetness is usually moderate, dairy plays a small role in older recipes, and a sweet dish is as likely to appear between meals or at a festival as at the end of dinner.
Key ingredients
The essentials are red (adzuki) beans cooked to a paste, mung beans, black sesame, lotus seeds, glutinous rice and its flour, taro, rock sugar and brown slab sugar, plus coconut milk in the south. Red bean paste fills the red bean bun; mung beans are cooked, sieved and pressed into the patterned mung bean cake.
Techniques
Steaming, boiling and setting are more common than baking. Glutinous rice flour is kneaded into a dough that cooks to the soft, springy chew of tangyuan and nian gao. Whole glutinous rice is wrapped in leaves and boiled for sticky rice dumplings (zongzi). Starches and agar set clear and milky jellies, from coconut jelly to fruit-studded agar-agar jelly, and taro is mashed and steamed into a sweet taro cake.
Regional styles
Hong Kong deserves its own mention: its dessert shops and street stalls popularised the bubble-shaped egg waffle (gai daan jai) and a modern repertoire of mango, sago and coconut desserts that has spread across Asia. Many of the same jellies and coconut sweets are shared with Southeast Asian Chinese communities, so you will find close relatives in the Indonesian and Malaysian and Thai collections.
Occasions
Festivals shape the calendar. Nian gao is eaten at Lunar New Year, its name a near-homophone for “higher year”, suggesting rising fortunes. Tangyuan are eaten at the Lantern Festival and, in the south, at the winter solstice, their round shape associated with family reunion. Zongzi belong to the Dragon Boat Festival and mooncakes to the Mid-Autumn Festival.
iii. Common questions
What are traditional Chinese desserts?
Traditional Chinese desserts include tangyuan (glutinous rice balls), nian gao (New Year rice cake), mooncakes, zongzi, red bean soup, sesame balls, mung bean cake and egg tarts. Many are based on glutinous rice, beans or seeds rather than dairy.
Why is tangyuan eaten at Chinese New Year?
Tangyuan are most closely linked to the Lantern Festival, which ends the New Year celebrations, and to the winter solstice. Their round shape and the sound of the name, similar to the word for reunion, make them a symbol of family togetherness. See the tangyuan recipe.
What is nian gao?
Nian gao is a sticky cake made from glutinous rice flour and sugar, eaten at Lunar New Year. Its name sounds like “year higher”, so it is eaten for a better year ahead. It can be steamed, sliced and pan-fried.
Are Chinese desserts very sweet?
Generally less so than Western desserts. Many are sweetened lightly with rock sugar or brown sugar and rely on the natural flavour of beans, seeds, taro or fruit, and textures such as chewy, bouncy or silky matter as much as sweetness.
What is a Hong Kong egg waffle?
An egg waffle (gai daan jai) is a Hong Kong street snack made from an egg-rich batter cooked in a special iron with rows of round cells, giving a sheet of crisp-shelled bubbles with soft centres. It is eaten warm, plain or with modern fillings.