Patron Exclusive Recipe #8 Old-school Dim Sum: Sweet Sesame Rolls (怀旧芝麻卷)

Sup guys. Hope you had a great week.
So rignt, this week I want to share a recipe of a old-school dim sum dish that's rarely seen in restaurants nowadays, sweet sesame rolls. You can still see them in few spots in Hong Kong and PRD (Pearl River Delta) cities, less and less restaurants still insist on making them.
Why? They can be time consuming for a restaurant to make. So this is variation of the sweet Cantonese waterchestnut cakes (马蹄糕/matigao), with the batter made with black sesame. Are you familiar with the Nyonya layer cakes? These are kind of like that, except you steam one layer, then let it cool and roll, then steam another one.
On the other hand, making it at home is not that difficult. It took me about 3 hours from beginning to the end to make the whole batch. So don't be scared, and let's get started.

  **Ingredients**
(Serves as a light snack. Keep in a clean and dry container, stays good in the fridge for up to 2 days. DO NOT freeze it, freezing and thawing will change the texture and make it unpalatable.)

1. *Pure* waterchestnut starch (马蹄粉), 125g. I recommend using the brand "洲星 (Zhouxing)" or other good quality ones at your local supermarket. Quality of cheaper brands may effect the texture (those may not be pure waterchestnut starch). This "Zhouxing" brand is very decent. Btw, we'll also be using watercchestnut starch for next week's video, dim sum beef ball~

2. Sugar, 250g. Use slap, white, brown, whatever you have on hand.

3. Black sesame, 60g, toasted (if you're unfamiliar with how to toast sesame, here's a tutorial in our tangyuan video). I have to limit my sesame amount as I'm using a blender and it's difficult to blend nuts without a huge amount of water. So if you're using food processor, you can up the sesame amount to 100g.

4. Instant expresso coffee powder, 1tsp. This is optional and an invention of me to enrich the toasted nut flavor. 

5. Water, 720.

That's all we need, doesn't seem that daunting, right?

 **Process**  

1. Toast your sesame, let it cool to room temp, add in to your blender/food processor with  220g of water. Mix till smooth. (Food processor is so much better in making thick nut paste).

2. Now take a strainer, put it on top of the bowl of waterchestnut startch, and strain the sesame/water mixutre in with the waterchestnut startch. (Add in the espresso powder now if using). 

(Before straining)

(The bits left after straining.)

3. Mix the waterchestnut starch with the sesame/water mixture into a smooth batter. This will take a little bit. Good quality waterchestnut starch tend to be easier to mix (something I found after comparing two brands, a cheaper one and a more expensive one).

(A smooth, clumless batter.)

4. Now we make the sugar/water mixture. Put the remaining water (500g) in a pot over the stove, add in all the sugar (250g), start on medium heat, stir occasionally till the sugar disolves. 

5. After the sugar is all disolved and the water is at a heavy simmer, take it off heat. Now we can start the mixing raw and cooked batter process (撞浆).
So here's what I learned, DON'T trust the instruction on the waterchestnut starch package, it tells you add all these hot sugar/water mixture in all at once, it'll just cooks all the starch at once and result in a gloop. The correct way is to do it twice.
Here's how we do it:

a. Take 3 tbsp of the waterchestnut batter, add in 1 tbsp at a time add into the hot sugar/water mixture, keep stiring when adding.

b. After adding in the 3 tbsp of batter, take the temperature, when it's at around 45-50 degrees celsius, we can move on to the next mixing process.
Now take the sugar/water mixture, slowly stream it into the waterchestnut batter, keep stiring constantly. 

(Take temperature)

6, After adding in all the sugar/water mixture, we'll have the raw and cooked mixed batter (生熟浆). And now we're ready to steam.

7. Get your steaming set up ready. Put the tray in your wok, and bring the water to a heavy boil. My tray is 8 inch.

8. When the water is at a heavy boil, take the tray out, scoop in about 3/4 cup of batter (depends on your tray size). Idea is to merely covering the whole surface with a 2mm layer.

9. Put the tray back, cover, steam on high for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, take out the tray, pour out any water that's collected in the tray. Let it cool down for a minute or two, till is ok to touch. Use a bench scraper to help you get one side up, gently roll it up. 

(Get one side up)

(Gently roll it up)

10. Now to shape it. Put the rolled up cake on a smooth non-sticky surface. Cut off the uneven edge. Then cut into 6-8cm sections.
Let it cool down (taste best after chilled in the fridge for 2 hours), and serve it up.
Or put it in a dry and clean air-tight box, keeps in the fridge for 2 days.

(Cut off the uneven edge)

(Cut into sections, 6-8cm). 

(Chill and serve it up)

11. Or you can steam a thicker layer and make a bigger roll. Steam for 10 minutes if you double the thickness of the layer. Then follow the same shaping process. Don't be too greedy with thickness, otherwise it'll be difficult to roll if it's too thick.

(Thicker and bigger roll)

(Bigger rolls)

So right, this isn't that complicated to make, it just take some patient and time. It's an al-dente little dessert that has a cool texture when biting into it. A cool little addition to make ahead for your next dim sum party. 

Hope you give a try. See you next week.