Wedang ronde is an Indonesian adaptation of tangyuan, a Chinese glutinous rice ball served in a hot broth or syrup. Wedang itself is the Javanese word for beverage, and ronde is a Dutch word for round.
The round ball is made of glutinous rice flour, filled with crushed peanuts and sugar. The technique in making the ball is pretty much similar to making klepon. The sticky balls are served in a sweet ginger soup, prepared using fresh ginger, palm sugar and pandan leaves.
Ginger is known to have several health benefits and it is also delicious when made into a drink. Because of its ability to make the body feel warm, ginger drinks are usually consumed when the weather is cold. As winter does not exist in Indonesia, wedang ronde or other ginger based drinks are popular at night or during the rainy season.
When I was little, I used to have a very simple wedang ronde, consisting of a small bowl of gingery soup with 2 or 3 sticky rice balls. The balls were always white — no colorful balls! Some peanuts might have been sprinkled, but that’s it.
Wedang ronde has somehow evolved to be more colorful and attractive, though there are no changes in flavour. The vibrant glutinous balls swimming in the light clear brown ginger syrup make a great presentation. As long as the soup base and the dough are correct, all is good.
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Wedang Ronde: Dessert Glutinous Rice Balls in Sweet Ginger Soup
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 3 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: Indonesian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Wedang ronde is an Indonesian version of tang yuan, a popular Chinese dessert consisting of glutinous rice balls in a sweet soup. Here, the rice balls are cooked with ginger, palm sugar, and pandan leaves.
Ingredients
- 25 gr roasted skinless peanuts
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 200 gr glutinous rice flour
- 1 tbsp tapioca flour
- 120 ml warm water
- Pinch of salt
- 2 drops green food colouring
- 2 drops pink red food colouring
- 200 gr fresh ginger
- 2 pandan leaves, knotted
- 1 lt water
- 100 gr palm sugar
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- Water for boiling
- 50 gr sugar palm fruit, boil for around 15 minutes, cool and slice (optional)
- Roasted peanuts for garnish
Instructions
- Ginger Soup: Roast the ginger over the stove until it’s a bit charred, around 5 minutes each side. Let it cool, scrape the skin, and bruise.
- Put 1 lt of water in a cooking pan.
- Add the ginger, pandan leaves, palm sugar and granulated sugar.
- Cook the soup until it boils, then lower the heat to medium low and continue cooking for about 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and sieve the soup to get a nice clear soup. Throw away the ginger and pandan leaves.
- Set the soup aside.
- Peanut filling: Grind the peanuts and 1 tbsp granulated sugar in a grinder until fine, set aside.
- Glutinous rice ball: Using a spoon, mix well: the glutinous flour, tapioca flour and a pinch of salt, in a bowl.
- Add the warm water to the flour mixture little by little while mixing it with a tablespoon. Make sure not to add too much water to avoid watery dough.
- Knead the dough using your hand until the dough is smooth and there are no more sticky bits of flour.
- Divide the dough equally into 3 parts.
- Add 2 drops of green food colouring to 1 part of the dough, then work on the dough until the dough turns smooth green.
- Do the same thing with the 2nd part of the dough using the pink food colouring.
- Leave the 3rd part of the dough as it is. This will result in white balls.
- While you are working on the dough, boil some water in a cooking pot.
- Take a little bit of the dough and roll it to form a small ball, then press into it using your thumb. Add the peanut sugar filling and then close it tightly. Roll it again into a smooth ball.
- Continue doing the same thing until you are done with all the dough.
- Put the sticky balls into the boiling water.
- Cook the balls until they float.
- When the balls float, continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
- Drain the balls until there’s no more water dripping.
- Put the balls in the serving bowls, add the sliced palm sugar fruit and the ginger soup.
- Garnish with roasted peanuts and serve immediately.
Notes
- To get a perfectly smooth round ball, after the ball is shaped, put it in the boiling water immediately until done.
- The amount of ginger and sugar can be adjusted according to your preference.
Keywords: Non-spicy, palm sugar, pandan leaves, tang yuan
