How to cook adorable cat-shaped sticky rice dumplings with cinnamon flower, super cute

How to Prepare Cinnamon Flower Sticky Rice Balls Shaped Like a Cat

• 1

  Prepare Ingredients

  Wash the mung beans thoroughly with water, then soak them in cold water for about 8 hours or soak them in hot water for about 1 hour to soften the mung beans.

  Wash the potatoes and boil them for about 5 – 7 minutes until they are cooked, then remove them. Place in a bowl, peel, and mash well. Peel and slice the ginger.

  Tips for Boiling Potatoes Quickly and Evenly:

  • In addition to the method above, to save boiling time, you can cut the potatoes into equal-sized slices about 2 – 3 cm thick. This will help you avoid having some potatoes cooked and some raw in the same pot.
  • You can check if the potatoes are cooked by using a chopstick or a fork and inserting it into the potato. If the potato falls apart when you insert a fork into it, then your potato is cooked.
  • To enhance the flavor of the potatoes, you can add a little salt when boiling.
  • To check the doneness of the potatoes, use a chopstick to pierce the potato; if the chopstick goes through easily, then the potato is properly cooked.

  

  

  

  
• 2

  Sautéed mung beans

  Mung beans after being soaked and drained should be steamed for 10 – 15 minutes until they are plump and soft.

  Remove the mung beans, use a fork to mash them or you can put the mung beans into a blender to puree.

  Divide 150gr of coconut milk into 3 parts, then gradually add each part to the mashed mung beans and mix well to combine the mung beans and coconut milk.

  Heat a pan on the stove, add a little oil, and when the oil is hot, add the mung beans and 30gr of sugar to sauté the filling for about 10 – 15 minutes until the mung beans are smooth, sticky, and no longer stick to the pan.

  

  

  
• 3

  Form the mung bean filling

  Let the filling cool, then shape it into balls of about 10 – 15gr each. After that, place them in a tray, cover tightly with plastic wrap to prevent the filling from drying out.

  
• 4

  Mix the dough

  Put 200gr of glutinous rice flour into a bowl, then add the mashed potatoes and mix well, then gradually add 170ml of boiling water, using a whisk to mix until the water is absorbed, then use your hands to knead the dough until it is smooth and no longer sticks to the bowl.

  Tip: You should use hot water to mix the dough; if you use cold water, the dough will shrink, clump, and spoil.

  Divide the dough into pieces of 15gr each.

  Tip: Depending on your preference, you can divide each piece into smaller pieces to mix colors, but ensure that the total weight of the divided pieces is 15gr.

  

  
• 5

  Mix the dough colors

  Divide a 15gr piece of dough into 2 small pieces and 1 large piece; the 2 small pieces are mixed with orange and black colors, while the large piece remains white. The remaining 15gr pieces can be customized according to the previous step to create a combination of 3 colors in any desired quantity.

  The remaining dough keeps its white color without mixing and is also divided into round pieces of 15gr.

  Take about 1 piece of white dough and divide it into 3; one part is mixed with pink to create the inner part of the cat’s ears, while the remaining 2 parts are kept to shape the cat’s ears.

  

  
• 6

  Create the floating cat dumpling

  Use a little white dough to shape it into a triangle to create the ears for the cat, then make a smaller triangle from the pink dough and stick it onto the white triangle to complete the ears.

  Calico cat:

  • Take the mixture of 3 colors: white, black, and orange, flatten the white dough, then place 2 pieces of orange and black dough on one side and continue to flatten it to create a flat round piece with one side white and the other side in 3 colors.
  • Put the filling in the center of the white side of the dough, then wrap it tightly and shape it into a round ball.
  • Stick the cat’s ears on top of the filled dumpling and draw additional details with black food coloring to create the eyes and mouth for the cat.

  White cat: Take the white dough, flatten it and wrap the filling, then attach the cat’s ears and draw the nose and mouth.

  Boil water in a pot, add 100g of sugar and then put the cat dumplings in to boil. Boil the dumplings until they float to the surface, then take them out and place them in cold water to drain.

  

  

  

  
• 7

  Cooking Tea

  Add 5g of dried flower (cinnamon flower) into a tea filter bag to prevent tea leaves from floating in the tea. Then place the filter bag into the tea brewing tool.

  Put a pot on the stove, add 500ml of water, then add 200g of rock sugar, 100g of yellow sugar, and 1g of ginger along with the brewing tool containing the cinnamon flower bag, and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved.

  When the sugar water boils, add the sesame cake and cook for about 15 more minutes.

  Tip:

  • Using a combination of 2 types of sugar will help the tea be mildly sweet and have a nicer color, while the cinnamon flower will give the tea a distinctive fragrance.
  • You can use jaggery sugar as a substitute with the same total weight as the two types of rock sugar and yellow sugar.

  

  

  

  
• 8

  Final Product

  Each rice cake shaped like beautiful, cute, colorful cats. The tea is sweet but not too strong, fragrant with cinnamon flowers, the cake is soft, with sweet and rich mung bean filling that you can eat without getting bored.