My Air Fried Chinese Sesame Balls (Jin Dui 煎堆/芝蔴球)

Whenever I had yum cha (or Chinese dim sum) with my family, one of my favourites is sesame balls! Never thought I would learn or know how to make them as I used to be so busy with work and life matters back then.

Anyway, here's the recipe for my air fried sesame balls. Note: This recipe made about 24 medium sesame balls)

Mashed sweet potato - 100~120g
Glutinous rice flour, sifted - 300g
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Caster sugar - 145g
Boiling water - 100~120ml (I use back the water for boiling the sweet potato)

Filling: either red bean / lotus paste
- about half the weight of the dough. Eg. 14g lotus paste for each 28g dough
- made them into mini balls for easy positioning and wrapping later

Method:-

Knead all the above until it forms a soft / smooth dough.

Note: To make it easier, use a breadmaker to help with the kneading. Just 1x dough function. (Note: Just use the breadmaker for kneading only. Press stop when it finishes kneading.)
Divide the dough to about 28~30g each. Form balls for easier flattening and wrapping later.

Wrapping: Skin: Take 1 dough ball, flatten (not until too thin to avoid easy cracking when frying)
- put 1 ball of filling in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the filling and form into smooth ball again

Coating sesame seeds: do it one at a time - wet the surface of each dough ball with water

- put the wet dough ball into a bowl of sesame. Coat the dough with sesame seed by gently shaking the bowl.

Air fry the sesame balls:-
Brush or spray each sesame balls with some cooking oil. Put the sesame balls into the air fryer, leaving a little space in between each balls to allow raising when air frying.

                                                    

Air fried about 9 sesame balls per batch (preferably using the grill pan instead of the basket)
160 degree C for about 13-15min, 180 degree C for about 2-3 min or until the desired golden brown. (Note: I am using Philips Airfryer HD9220. Temperature guide is for reference. Check and gently shake the grill pan / basket every 5 min to avoid cracking / over frying. You may want to use 160 degree C throughout the whole frying process. It is okay to do that.)