Taiwanese wedding dumplings

When a couple are getting married in Taiwan, the bride's family, neighbors, and friends traditionally get together to make small dumplings from sticky rice. During the engagement and wedding celebrations, the bride's family serve the sticky dumplings to everyone who visits them. The dumplings aren't flavored, but they're usually served with a sweet soup (or sweetened in some other way).

The handmade sticky dumpling balls are a gift from the family and all the friends and neighbors nearby. When they get together making the sticky dumpling balls, it's always a happy atmosphere. The dumplings aren't hard to make. It's like a kind of party, with everyone talking, laughing, and eating. A daughter getting married is everyone's business. So making the dumplings together is a blessing they all prepare for the bride. They put their happiness into making the sweet sticky dumplings, and share it with everyone.

The dumplings can be served in the sweet soup (or deep fried then served with sweet peanut powder). However the dumplings are served, they have to be sweet. It's a way to bless the new couple with a sweet, happy and successful life.

So, in Taiwan, the typical dessert for the wedding banquet or engagement ceremony is small sticky dumpling balls. This dish symbolizes romance, being together, having lots of children, and so on. The round dumpling balls represent the ideas of being full and complete. The sweet flavor means romance, happiness, and joy. Put together, the sweet dumplings mean the happy couple will create a happy family, and a successful future, and the warmth of their feelings will bring them many children.

How to make sweet sticky dumpling balls

Preparing the sticky rice dough

Ingredients

3 cups of glutinous rice flour (sticky rice flour)
1½ cup of water

Instructions

1. Mix all the sticky rice flour with the water to make dough
2. Put 10% of the dough into boiling water, and cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Put the the cooked dough back together with the remaining uncooked sticky rice dough.
4. Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic.
5. Allow the dough to rest for about half an hour.
6. Divide the dough into 6 portions.
7. Roll the dough until into a sheet 1cm thick, then cut it into 1cm x 1cm pieces.
8. Roll each dough piece in your hands, and make it into a little round ball.

 

Preparing the sweet soup

5 cups water
5 tablespoons black sugar or enough to taste

Instructions

1. Bring the water to the boil, then add the black sugar. Allow the black sugar water to simmer for about half an hour.

How to cook the dumplings

Instructions

1. Prepare a saucepan, fill with about 1 liter of water, bring it the boil.

2. Put about one cupfull of dumpling balls into the boiling water.

3. When the balls float to the top of the water, they are cooked.

4. Serve the cooked dumpling balls together with the hot sweet soup.