Taro and Sweet Potato Balls Dessert (九份芋圓)

5 from 9 votes

Taro and Sweet Potato Balls Dessert is a classic Taiwanese treat will indulge every sugar craving. It's also made using natural ingredients!

Prep Time1 30

Cook Time15

Red Bean Pre-Soaking3

Total Time4 45

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Taiwanese

Servings:

Calories: 548kcal

250 g / 0.55 lb taro (peeled and sliced into 1/2 cm / 0.2" slices)
250 g / 0.55 lb orange sweet potato (peeled and sliced into 1/2 cm / 0.2" slices)
250 g / 0.55 lb purple sweet potato (peeled and sliced into 1/2 cm / 0.2" slices)
400 g / 0.88 lb tapioca starch
5 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
water (if needed)

Set up your steamer and steam the vegetable slices for 30 minutes per batch. If you have a larger steamer, you can steam more at the same time.
Mash the steamed taro slices using a fork or a potato masher followed by the steamed sweet potatoes.
Pour 100g tapioca starch into the mashed taro along with 1 tsp sugar and knead until a dough is formed. It should be firm enough to stand as a ball and not too soft that it sticks to your hands.
Note: The amount of tapioca starch needed will vary for each dough because every root vegetable will have different levels of moisture.
If you find the dough too dry, knead in 1 tbsp water at a time until you have the desired consistency. Using less starch will also mean a softer ball while more starch will yield a chewier ball and a milder flavor.
Repeat the previous step with the mashed purple and orange sweet potatoes except using higher amounts of tapioca starch as they naturally contain more moisture.
Take small dough handfuls and roll them into logs 1.5 cm (0.6") in diameter. Use a knife to divide the log into 1.5 cm (0.6") pieces.
Dust the balls in tapioca starch to stop them from sticking to each other.
Bring a pot of water to boil and fill a large bowl with room temperature water. When boiling, put a handful of raw pieces in to cook until they float.
Continue to let them cook for another 2 minutes before transferring them into the water bowl.
Scoop the balls out and toss them in the remaining sugar, 1 tbsp per batch (or to taste).

Soak the red beans in water for 3 hours. This will make the cooking process much faster.
Drain the soaking water from the beans then cook them in a pot with the rock sugar and new water for 30 minutes or until soft.
Scoop the beans out to use as a topping. Optional: You can keep the leftover red bean water for your dessert soup.

Boil the water, rock sugar and ginger for 30 minutes.
To assemble the Taro and Sweet Potato Balls Dessert, put some of the balls into a bowl and top it with any of your favorite toppings. Then pour the ginger syrup over and enjoy as is!

Check the sweet potato's flesh color. Look for the larger separated pieces and check their exposed ends. Their ends will reveal the color of the flesh when it's cooked.
Make sure the balls are warm when getting tossed in sugar. The heat will turn the sugar into a glaze.
Vary the amount of tapioca flour for the taro, orange and purple sweet potatoes depending on their starch content. As a rule of thumb, taro will need the least, purple sweet potato a bit more and orange sweet potato the most.
Cook the balls, red bean and ginger syrup all at once. This will help you save time.
Presoak the adzuki red beans. Doing so for 3 hours will cut down on cooking time.
Taro and Sweet Potato Balls are traditionally used making sweet potato starch for that signature QQ texture (a.k.a. the al dente of some Asian dishes). It can be difficult to come by, so we use for tapioca starch.
Use red adzuki red beans for this recipe, which can be found in most Asian groceries.
We use rock sugar for our sugar water to get a light ginger syrup, but you can certainly use other types depending on your preference or what's available to you.