Vietnamese Fried Sesame Balls with Sweet Mung Bean Filling (Bánh Cam | Bánh Rán)

Posted by admin on

Banh Cam Vietnamese Sesame Balls with Sweet Mung Bean Filling

What is Banh Cam?

Bánh Cam is a southern Vietnamese dessert. It’s a deep-fried glutinous rice ball with a sesame seed crust and a sweet mung bean paste filling. The shell is crunchy with a chewy texture and the interior is hollow. Sometimes you can hear the rattling of the filling ball inside if shaken.

Bánh Cam directly translates to orange cake because it resembles an orange fruit when deep-fried, and not that it has oranges in them.

You can find these treats as one of the offerings in Dim Sum.

What is Banh Ran?

In northern Vietnam, the same dessert is called Bánh Rán. The northern version can often be found coated in a thin crust of caramel sugar.

Bánh Cam

Vietnamese Deep-fried
sesame balls with sweet mung bean filling

Rice flour and glutinous rice flour

Filling

A traditional Bánh Cam filling is made from mung beans that have been boiled or steamed then mashed into a homogenous paste. It’s then mixed with sugar and sometimes freshly grated coconut. In other Asian cuisines, instead of mung bean paste, you can find red bean paste or lotus seed paste.

Shell

The outside crispy shell of Bánh Cam is made from a combination of glutinous rice flour, rice flour, potato starch, and baking powder. The use of glutinous rice flour yields a chewy texture, exactly like Japanese mochi. And the small amount of rice flour and potato starch is what makes the outside shell crunchy when fried.

The dough wraps around the filling into a ball that fits perfectly in the palm of your hand. The balls get a sesame seed coating then deep-fried to golden perfection.

It’s crunchy, chewy, and semi-sweet. It’s delicious as a healthy snack or a quick sweet breakfast on the go.

Vietnamese Deep-Fried Sesame Balls with Sweet Mung Bean Filling (Banh Cam | Banh Ran)

This makes 24 balls (slightly smaller than a tennis ball)

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. For the filling, rinse the mung beans in a colander until water runs clear. Transfer mung beans to a medium-size pot and add water to cover by 3 inches. Bring the pot to a boil then reduce heat to a low simmer. Partially cover with a lid. Cook for about 1 hour or until you can easily smash a mung bean between your fingers. Once you reach this point, continue to cook on low heat, uncovered, to let the excess water evaporate off. No standing water should be in the pot.
  2. Add sugar, salt, vegetable oil, and shredded coconut to the mung beans. Mix and mash the mung beans until you get a homogenous paste. Divide the mung bean into 24 golf-size balls (about 1-inch in diameter).
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, potato starch and baking powder until evenly combined.
  4. Add water, sugar, and vegetable oil and kneed until you get a smooth, slightly sticky but manageable, ball of dough.
  5. Divide the dough into 24 balls (a tad bigger than the mung bean filling, about 1-½ inches in diameter). Flatten the dough and place the filling ball in the center. Pull the sides to the top and pinch together the seams. Roll the ball back and forth in the palm of your hands until the seams are smooth. Then roll the ball in sesame seeds to cover.
  6. Fill a large wok or pot with 3 inches of vegetable oil and heat the oil until it reaches 350°F. Deep fry in batches if needed. Use a slotted spoon to lower the balls into the oil. Let it sit in the oil for 5 seconds then swoosh them around so that it cooks up round. Cook for 6-8 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to remove excess oil. The crust will soften over time and the balls will deflate slightly but they are still delicious at room temperature. Leftovers keep well in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, simply pop them in the microwave. You can also put them in the toaster oven or refry them in oil.

YOU MIGHT LIKE THESE OTHER DESSERT RECIPES