Here’s a yummilicious and tummy warming dessert for the cool nights of autumn. This delectable and decadent creamy Chinese Walnut Dessert Soup 核桃糊 is easy to make and truly satisfying with the toasty, nutty rich flavor of toasted walnuts and the caramel notes of the slab sugars. If you like nuts, you’ll go nuts over this sweet soup!
A cinch to make, really. First the walnuts are blanched in hot water to remove any bitterness. Then the walnuts are roasted in the oven to bring out their rich toasty aromas. Keep an eye on the oven, you don’t want to burn them!
Here are the walnuts fresh out of the oven, nicely roasted and smelling ever so delicious! Whenever using nuts, it’s a must to give them a roast first to really bring out the best of their flavors.
The roasted nuts are cooled and then blitzed with a bit of cold water. Cold water is used to counter the heat of the blitzing process. I’m using my handy and space saving hand blender here. OMgosh, it smells so good already!
More water is added until your walnut paste look like this. A smooth creamy pool of walnut-y deliciousness.
The only other two ingredients are rice flour and slab sugar. Rice flour 米粉 is added to give the soup a thicker, more creamy body.
When using rice flour note the following:
- Don't mistakenly use glutinous rice flour 糯米粉. Only use rice flour 米粉.
- Be sure to mix rice flour thoroughly with a bit of water. Make sure you get out of the lumps in the slurry before adding to the pot.
The sweetener for this dessert soup is Chinese slab sugar 片糖, an unrefined sugarcane juice (with the molasses still in) concentrated down into dark dense sugary slabs. It has a rich complex caramel-y flavor that is often used to complement many Chinese desserts.
To use just slice or snap off what you need. For easier melting we gave the slab a rough chop before dropping into the soup. You can find both rice flour and slab sugar at your nearest asian grocery.
The last step is to cook down the soup. Keep a careful eye on the pot cuz it will have a tendency to boil over as you can see from the photo. Using a larger deeper pot will help with this issue. Cook until reduced, thick and delicious!
Enjoy one small warm, nutty, creamy sweet bowl at a time. Small portions is best for this rich and warmingly yummilicious Chinese dessert soup. Happy autumn days everyone!
Chinese Walnut Dessert Soup Recipe
(Adapted from recipe in The Wisdom of Chinese Cooking)
(makes 6 bowls) Prep time: 2 mins Cook time: 25mins
Ingredients:
- 2 cups shelled walnuts
- 1 cup cold water
- 1/4 cup rice flour 米粉
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 slabs Chinese slab sugar 片糖
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300 F.
Add water to a small pot and bring to a boil. Add in the walnuts and let boil for a minute. This will remove most of the bitterness from the walnut's skins. Pour through a sieve and shake walnuts dry.
Place the walnuts in one layer on baking tray. Bake for 15 mins or until the walnuts are golden brown in spots. Keep a close eye on them to prevent any burning. Remove from oven and let the walnuts cool completely.
Put walnuts in food processor with half of the cold water and blitz. Add in the rest of the cold water until a smooth paste is formed.
Whisk rice flour with 1 cup of water until no clumps. Add rice flour slurry, 2 cups water and walnut paste to a deep large pot. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils then turn down the heat to a simmer.
Dice up slab sugar and add to the pot. Let simmer 10 mins or until reduced to a slightly thickened creamy soup. Note that the deep large pot is used because this soup has a tendency to bubble up. Reduce heat as needed to prevent bubbling over.
Scoop into small bowls and serve hot. Keeps covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Decadent Dessert Soups at The Hong Kong Cookery:
Just tried this... very simple recipe... it's good but think 1 1/2 slaps of chinese slab sugar is way too much, other than that 5 stars!
ReplyDeleteAdjust the sugar to your liking! I'll admit to a bit of a sweet tooth so cut back if you like it less sweet. ~ellen😁
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