Homemade Dessert Rice Dumplings

For our latest team building activity, my department went to My Kitchen by Joanne to make rice dumplings. These are a traditional Chinese dessert, filled with sesame and then cooked in sweet, gingery soup.

We each made a total of 12 dumplings in two character designs of our choice. Apparently my choices (pictured above) are popular Japanese cartoons, but I had no idea. I only chose them because they were cute.

To make the dumplings, we started with rice flour, water and food coloring. After making the main dough for the wrappers, we filled each dumpling with pre-made sesame paste. Then it was time to decorate the outside.

I can't actually say if my dumplings tasted nice or not because I gave them to a friend. Even if they were "good", I wasn't particularly interested in eating them. (With the exception of custard mooncakes, I don't really like traditional Chinese desserts.) However, it was fun to try making something new, even if it was a bit labor-intensive.