Chestnut Brown Sugar Nian Gao 栗子黑糖年糕
Nian Gao is one of my favortie Lunar New Year desserts growing up. The usual flavor in my house was red bean. My mom would slice and coat them in batter, and deep fry them. It’s delicious to enjoy right away- the outside is pipping hot and crispy, the inside is this mochi like texture, very addictive.
Chestnut Brown Sugar Nian Gao 栗子黑糖年糕
Yield one 5” Nian Gao
Ingredients
Glutinous rice flour, 260g
Brown sugar, 170g
Water, 200-350g *when making double portion, i ended up adding almost 800g
Cooked chestnut, 100g, chopped
Instructions
Prepare a 5” cake pan or steam basket, lined with steam basket paper or parchment paper.
Combine the glutinous rice flour, brown sugar, and water together. Mix until smooth. Add in the chopped chestnut. Mix to combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared container. Tab on the work surface several times to get rid of some large bubbles in the mixture. Transfer to a steamer. Steam over high heat for about 40-45 minutes. Once a toothpick comes out clean then it’s done.
Wipe the water off the top of the top layer parchment paper, let it cool and wrap the entire container with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill overnight.
The day of serving, remove the container from the fridge. Unwrap. Wipe off the water on top of the parchment paper, we want to minimize excess water dropping onto the actual nian gao.
Slice to desired size and either steam for 5 minutes or pan fry for serving.
** one trick on slicing- if you find it hard to slice because the nian gao is too sticky, I find oiling the knife before slicing very helpful!
