Sesame balls jian dui

Method

1. 1 Cook red beans until tender, then mix with sugar to form a thick agar paste (anko) and roll into small balls.
2. 2 Boil rock sugar with water to make a warm syrup, then knead the glutinous rice flour with that syrup.
3. 3 Knead the dough with warm syrup, not plain water; the sugar in the flour is what helps the crust rise.
4. 4 Wrap the filling in the dough, roll it into a ball, and then dip it in water before coating it completely with sesame seeds.
5. 5 Fry in warm oil at 130 degrees and gradually increase to 170 degrees over 15 minutes.
6. 6 While frying, gently press and roll the balls continuously with a spatula; this is how the balls expand to double their size.

With an appliance

• Air fryer 50 min

  Replace steps 5 and 6: spray oil evenly over the sesame-coated dough balls, air fry at 170 degrees for 14 minutes, and flip and rotate the balls at minutes 5 and 10 to ensure the crust puffs up evenly. The filling and wrapping steps from steps 1 to 4 remain the same.