Nian Gao (Baked Sweet Potato Sticky Rice Cakes) Recipe (2024)

The amount of glutinous flour in grams is wrong. 1 1/2 cups makes about 170 grams, not 282 as stated. Using the grams measurements, the dough came out completely dry.

We encountered the same problem as Ian - I measured the flour by grams rather than cups, so when I added the water it looked like slightly crumbly flour. We added another 3/4 cup of water and then used only half the “slurry” (definitely not a dough). The first batch has just come out of the oven, and they are decent but gooey. We suggest not proceeding with this recipe until someone has corrected the measurements. Something is not right.

Growing up in America, we did not use these fancy molds to make Nian Gao. We use a cheat disposable aluminum tin or if you want to be fancy a pie dish. I believe the round dish signifies togetherness however these are beautiful so I will try making them in molds this year. I will use my mom’s recipe that does not include sweet potatoes or coconut milk and use brown sugar instead of white sugar.

I have not made these (YET). But I am going to spring for the kuih bahulu pans because those shapes are some of the most charming things I have seen!

Help please! I measured out 1.5 cups of freshly bought glutinous rice flour (Erawan brand) and it weighs about 142 g instead of the reported 292 g. I repeated this measurement several times to make sure. Should I stick with the volume measurements or the weight measurements for best accuracy in this recipe? Also, should the glutinous rice flour and water mixture form a "dough" or a "slurry"?

Like most others, I had some issues with my rice flour to water ratio. It formed into a "dough", but it was a bit like a brick. I had to use an immersion blender to incorporate the chunks into the batter as they are quite hard.My advice is to bake longer than you deem necessary. A shallow, decorative cakelette pan took nearly the entire 40 minutes.The center texture I can only describe as "a glob." Not UNtasty glob, per se. But a glob. Underbaked is goo, correct back is glob.

This must be a typo - when I measured 1.5 cups it weighed 192 grams and decided 292 should have been 192. They are delicious with a nice and crispy top. I took the first batch out a little too early after 25 minutes, my second batch turned out nice and crisp after 40 minutes ( and I had the small tins!)

I measured the rice flour by weight and it came out fine. The water and rice flour made a very stiff paste, but it was easy to whisk it into the warm batter. The more challenging part was getting the bake right. First, I tried Madeleine tins brushed with grapeseed oil. They were delicious but too sticky and hard to get out of the pan. The second time, I put a generous dollop of solid coconut oil in mini muffin tins. These were perfect, crunchy and chewy, even though the coconut oil smoked!

Are the current glutenous rice flour measurements correct? Just want to know before attempting.

I made these for Lunar New Year using the corrected weight of glutinous flour and they were delicious, especially when warm. Baked for 45 min. I have the Nordic Ware mini-rose pan and they looked great too. Will make again.

Makes a quite dense cake. Going to try this ina runnier version for pancakes. I think the problem some people run into is that you must use very fine glutinous rice powder that usually comes in a bag and feels super fine like corn starch. Mochiko japanese powder is wrong and comes in a box and feels grainy. Absorbs water totally differently.

I used the volume measurements in the recipe and everything turned out great. The only variation was needing to add more water to make a moister dough consistency (it was very dry and crumbly), and using regular cornstarch instead of tapioca. An electric whisk is your friend for this recipe, unless you like the single arm workout.

these are sooo amazing. Sweet and chewy

I made these with a different brand of glutinous rice and used the 240 gram measurement. After mixing with water it was crumbly but let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. It still didn’t totally lose its chunkiness when I whisked it with the other ingredients so I put the whole batter through a sieve and in this way broke up the little flour chunks. Stayed in the over 40 min and came out perfectly! Totally delicious!!

Made these and they were delicious. Baked them in a small-size muffin tin. They sank into a concave shape when I took them out of the oven. And that was perfect for the dollop of mango sauce (ripe mango plus about 2 tablespoons of Meyer lemon juice whirled in the blender). Great addition.

All flours absorb differently; I suggest adding water slowly until you get to the right consistency. The batter seemed better after a day or two in the fridge. The pans need to be really really hot; hotter than the oven actually, when the batter sizzles as it hits the pan you know you've got it right. I tried several different things and ended up using mini muffin pans heated over the stove and then popped into the oven. A few tricks but once you sort them out a really lovely little bite.

made using rice flour volume measurement of 1.5 cups and it worked out well. (In first version of recipe had either a typo or error that called for 1.5 cups or 292 grams.) used weights for remainder of ingredients

I went with 192 grams and baked for 40 minutes using small but not mini muffin tins (yield 24). It worked but next time I might try 292 grams or even split the difference and try 242 grams of rice flour. Certainly either the 1.5 cups or the 292 grams is wrong. I used Korean sweet rice flour because I had some already.

Despite all the comments about the amount of rice flour, the recipe worked as written for me (292g, scaled in proportion to the amount of sweet potato I had on hand). I used a different kind of rice flour: Koda Farms Mochiko. It doesn't become a dough or batter during the overnight rest, but that's fine. It incorporated just fine when I whisked it in, and the final product had crispy edges and a pleasantly chewy center.

The amount of glutinous rice flour was completely off. The water/flour mix was like barely wet sand. I used an immersion blender to blitz the final mixture to get everything incorporated, and I'm not sure the texture is correct. They came out quite gummy and not at all crispy.

I also had a problem with the flour amount. I added more water in slowly till I got somewhat of a dough consistency. Can someone please check the weight amount???

The final result is tasty but the texture is goopy. I found the measurements to be incorrect and the instructions not helpful. I agree that with a previous post advising caution in using this particular recipe.