Black Sesame Rice Cakes — This Black-Looking Thing Is Full of Calcium
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
Friends, I've been binge-watching until all hours lately, and every morning the mirror tells me I look worse — sallow, off-color. So I dug out the nourishing little recipe I keep at the bottom of the drawer. This one suits everyone from grandparents to kids.
Today I'll show you a nourishing little treat that's genuinely good — sweet and chewy, and the black sesame with osmanthus aroma is just perfect together.
Black sesame has 7–8 times the calcium of milk, plus vitamin E and unsaturated fats; eaten regularly it's good for your hair and skin.
They're chewy with a real bite, and your mouth fills with the sweet aroma of sesame.
Best of all: no oven, no kneading. Steam it once and it's done — even a total kitchen beginner manages it.
Nourishing and delicious. Go try it.
Ingredients
| Ingredients | |
|---|---|
| 1 cup (120 g) black sesame powder | ¾ cup (90 g) glutinous rice flour |
| 1½ tbsp (20 g) sugar or zero-calorie sweetener | ½ cup (120 ml) milk |
| dried osmanthus flowers, for topping | |
Ingredient Notes
- Use freshly ground pure sesame powder with no sugar or additives.
- If you toast your own sesame, let it cool completely before grinding — hot sesame releases oil and clumps.
- Add the milk in stages; glutinous rice flour absorbs slowly, and pouring it all at once makes it too loose.
- Zero-calorie sweetener can replace the sugar 1:1, but the result is slightly drier.
- Add the osmanthus at the end — steaming it too long drives off the aroma.
Instructions
-
1
Put the sesame powder, glutinous rice flour, and sweetener in a large bowl and add the milk, stirring well. Be patient here and stir until there are no lumps — a smooth batter is what gives you a fine texture.
-
2
Knead the mixture into a dough by hand. Add a little more flour if it's wet, a little more milk if it's dry, and knead until smooth, soft, and not sticky.
-
3
Press the dough into a mold, or shape it by hand into little cakes or squares.
-
4
Cut into small pieces. No mold? Hand-shaped balls or squares are just as cute.
-
5
Line the steamer with parchment, add the pieces, start with cold water, and steam 15 minutes from boiling.
-
6
Take them out and let them cool slightly, then scatter dried osmanthus on top — it looks better and smells better. The light osmanthus against rich sesame gives you clear layers in one bite.
-
7
Fresh out of the steamer they're piping hot and the whole kitchen smells of sesame.
Sweet, soft, fine, not sticky on the teeth, and better the more you chew. A nourishing, low-calorie little treat that's genuinely filling — great for breakfast or afternoon tea.
Recipe Notes
Black Sesame Rice Cakes
black sesame powder and glutinous rice flour with milk, steamed 15 minutes and finished with osmanthus. No oven, no kneading.
Time Needed
Prep Ahead
- Toast the sesame until fragrant, grind it, then mix with sugar and fat into a filling that holds together when squeezed.
- 【Yield】1¾ cups (210 g) total flour fills one small square pan, about 9 pieces.
- 【Key ratios】Black sesame powder to glutinous rice flour ≈ 4:3 (120:90), with ½ cup (120 ml) milk and 1½ tbsp (20 g) sugar.
- 【Heat】Start with cold water and steam 15 minutes from boiling.
- 【Dough】Knead until smooth and not sticky — more flour if wet, more milk if dry.
- 【Storage & reheating】Refrigerate 2 days, re-steam 5 minutes; they firm up when cold.
- 【Common problems】Cracking means the dough was too dry. Sticky on the teeth means under-steamed or too high a proportion of glutinous flour.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 325 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 8 g |
| Fat | about 9 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 53 g |
| of which sugars | about 11 g |
| Fiber | about 3.5 g |
| Sodium | about 60 mg |
Estimated from the ingredient amounts, not lab tested. One piece is about 2 oz (55 g), roughly 179 kcal, calculated at 4 / 9 / 4 kcal per g of protein / fat / carbs.