Chinese desserts may be shadowed by the fancy looks of cakes and tarts in the western world, but their tastes are ever as good and special. Very different from the butter/chocolate/jam you are familiar with, Chinese dessert often use another set of ingredients to bring out the sweet flavours. Sesame paste is one of the ‘must have’ to make Chinese desserts. It has a special sandy texture and of course, its overwhelming fragrance. Not convinced? just open a bottle of sesame oil and smell!
___________________________________
Ingredients (for about half a pound of the paste):
Black sesame seeds: 100g;
Caster sugar: 80g;
Butter: 40g;
Lard: 30g
__________________________________
This is so easy to make, you need no more than 10 minutes!
1) Toast the sesame seeds in a pan for about 3-4 minutes or until you can slightly smell the sesame fragrance. Watch by the fire as they are quite easy to get burnt!
2) Pour the toasted seeds into a food processor (mine is 1000w power) and mill about 20 seconds until they turn into a rough powder texture (bit wet as the oil in the seeds leaking out). If you don’t have a food processor, you can also do this with a mortar and pestle.
3) Get a mixing bowl, measure 100g of white caster sugar, 40g of butter and 30g of lard, in go with the sesame powder and mix them well until all the ingredients combine together. Traditionally the ratio of sesame/sugar/fat should be 1:1:1, but I have reduced the amount of sugar and fat simply because it’s healthier. Also in old times Chinese didn’t have butter, so full amount of lard is used as the ‘fat’ element, I certainly don’t want to do that!
That’s it! You can use this paste as a sweet filling to many Chinese desserts and pastries. The featured image and last picture show a very famous Chinese dessert called ‘rice ball’. Though I have altered the traditional receipt of black sesame paste, it can only be more healthy and delicious!
