When I was younger, Dong Zhi, or Tang Chek in Hokkien, was one of the very few times in the year when I was allowed to play with dough. Since moving to this lovely grey and dark country, it now symbolizes the end of the everlasting dark nights. Known as the Winter Solstice,because of the earth’s tilt, earth’s hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore:daylight is the shortest today.

Days then gets longer by about a minute every day,and this goes on until the Summer Solstice, which is the longest day in the year. There is still 24 hours in a day, but with more sunlight as opposed to more darkness. The sun has been setting around 4pm everyday and this had depressed me to no end, as I regularly go for a few days without seeing the sun at all..:(.

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the Yin and Yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. After this celebration, there will be days with longer daylight hours and therefore an increase in positive energy flowing in. Round glutinious rice balls seeped in sweet syrup are eaten in celebration of the winter solstice, symbolizing family reunions popular for this festival.

I must admit that it has been some time since I’ve made them myself, preferring to buy frozen ones from the supermarket. However, in the spirit of my me-can-cook, this year I made the more traditional plain ones and the cantonese-styled peanut butter stuffed version popularly available in Hong Kong dessert shops. This was heavily influenced by bacon, who had developed a liking for the peanut butter dessert – just like reeses’ peanut butter cups.

Ingreddients
syrup
2 screwpine leaves (pandan), knotted
2-3 piece of medium rock sugar,
1 liter water

dough
1 cup water
2 cup glutinious rice flour
1tsp olive oil
1tbs sugar

Boil ingreddients for the syrup on a low fire.

Mix ingreddients in a mixing bowl, adding flour as needed. The mixture is of the right consistency when it sticks to the spoon and does not drip down.

Add flour, if needed, to ensure that mixture is not too wet.

Divide dough into bowls, mixing in food coloring. Traditionally, red or pink is used to symbolize prosperity

With a lump of dough between your palms, roll to a smooth, round shape. Coat palms and plate with four so that dough does not stick

For filling, follow similar instructions, but with a larger piece of dough. Flatten out, drop a dollop of peanut butter, and seal. Roll the ball to keep the shape.

Once all dough is utilised, drop the balls into the now-boiling syrup mixture.

Leave boiling for about 5 minutes, by which all the balls should be floating, which means they are cooked

Serve a few balls with enough syrup to cover

Ahhh….I’ve missed plain,chewy Ee(round in hokkien)

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