This sticky rice flour ball or Nuomici (糯米糍)is a famous Chinese pastry which is quite popular in Guangdong province and Hong Kong. Sometimes, we call them coconut rice ball or coconut mochi.
In summer days, cold drinks and pastries are always popular since they can help us to cool down. Keep those little coconut cake in refrigerator for around 2 hours and just bit it, the aroma of coconut and the sweetness from the combination of sugar and glutinous rice are so satisfying.
Glutinous rice, also known as sticky rice is one of the most important ingredients in types of Chinese pastry. We love glutinous rice and make lots of famous festival foods with it including the rice dumpling (Tangyuan) for Dragon Boat Festival, New Year Rice cake for Spring Festival and Ciba for Middle Autumn day.
Cook’s Note
- This recipe calls for water milled glutinous rice flour.You can get it from some local Asian stores or amazon Dried Sweet Glutinous Rice Flour – 2x 1 Lb (Traditional Water Milled)
- The batter dough can be quite sticky when still warm. After steaming, stir it with chopstick to help it cool down. You may feel strong resistance during the process. When the dough is slightly cooled to touch by hands, transfer it to a plate with plastic wrapper and knead for 3-4 minutes. This is quite important to make the dough chewy and delay aging process. We use the same technique in snow skin mooncake.
- Plastic gloves are very effective tool during wrapping. Although the dough should be little sticky after chilled, plastic gloves can prevent the transmission of heat from our hands.
You will need
- Half cup of desiccated coconut for decoration
- Mango, red bean paste or any other inner filling you want
- 150g (1 and ½ cup) glutinous rice flour (water milled)
- 40g (around 3 tbsp.) cornstarch or plain rice flour
- 30g (around 2 tbsp.) powdered sugar or to taste
- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil (with less taste )
- 240ml coconut milk
Steps
Mix all the ingredients for the batter in a large bowl until well combined.
Place the large bowl in a steamer. Bring the water to a boiling and continue to steam for 20 minutes. Stir once during the process.
When the batter is well steamed, stir it with chopsticks to speed up the cooling down process. After slightly cooled down, transfer it to a plate with plastic wrapper.
Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes with the help of the plastic wrapper. Otherwise it can be quite sticky. Then place in fridge until chilled.
Take a small ball with the help of your thumb and index finger. Form a circle with two fingers and squeeze the ball out.
You can wrap mango, red bean paste or other filling you want. Sweet ones are recommended. If you want to use red bean paste as filling, check how to make red bean paste at home. The most popular filling in China is mango and kiwi fruit.
Then coat the sticky rice balls with coconut.
And carefully transfer it to a cup holder.
Other sticky rice recipes
- Sticky rice cake with red bean paste
- Sticky rice cake with black sesame filling
- Lo Mai Gai, steamed sticky rice with lotus leaf
- Stuffed sticky rice
- Steamed sticky rice with ribs
- Small sticky rice balls over mango smoothie
Sticky Rice Cake with Coconut – Nuomichi
Ingredients
- Half cup of desiccated coconut for decoration
- Mango ,red bean paste or any other inner filling you want
batter
- 150 g glutinous rice flour (water milled)
- 40 g around 3 tbsp. cornstarch or plain rice flour
- 30 g around 2 tbsp. powdered sugar or to taste
- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil ,with less taste
- 240 ml coconut milk
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in the batter well in a large bowl. Covered with plastic wrapper.
- Place the large bowl in a steamer. Bring the water to a boiling and continue to steam for 20 minutes. Stir once during the process to guarantee the uniform heat.
- Transfer out and stir with chopsticks to help it cool down. Transfer it to a plate with plastic wrapper. Then knead for 3-4 minutes with the help of a plastic wrappers. Wrap the wrapper dough well and fridge until chilled.
- When the wrapper dough is well chilled, use your thumb and index finger to form a circle around the dough and squeeze a ball out. Wrap with your filling.
- Roll the ball in the bowl with desiccated coconut, place in a cupcake cup. Repeat to make all the cake. Put all of them in refrigerator for 2 hours. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, thank you for posting this recipe , I have a question about if don’t have coconut powder anything else I can use to instated that?
thank you
I am fine now , thank you
Thank you for this recipe. I made these yesterday and they are absolutely delicious! I have aleays loved this texture. I do have a couple of questions. What is the powder syrup? Are they supposed to stay round? Mine flattened a bit.
Sorry Leah,
I believe that I have made myself understood. For powder syrup, I mean the dough from sticky rice. You need to use a cupcake wrapper to help it stay around.
Love your recipe! But I just want to know how come you did not use Glutious rice!???? Thanks.
It is flour I am using.
Hello Elaine!
It is nice to meet you! I love to eat foods from all over the world & Chinese cuisine is some of my favorite! This recipe sounds Wonderful to me. I Love nuomichi, but I had never really thought about trying to make my own before seeing your lovely recipe. I can’t wait to try it when this pandemic is over & I can get a wider variety of ingredients. I plan to try your homemade sweet red bean paste filling, too. Thank you so much for sharing your best recipes with us!!
Thank you again,
Kathy
Kathy,
Thanks for leaving me such a wonderful comment.
Do you need to cover the bol with saran wrap when seaming ? I think I see some in the photo but not the instructions.
Yes, the lid should be covered during steaming process.