Chè Trôi Nước: Soft Rice Balls in Warm Ginger Syrup
A smooth, sealed glutinous rice ball with a mung bean center, a clear ginger and palm sugar syrup, and a separate pandan coconut cream spooned on at the end. Each part is made on its own and comes together only in the bowl.
Jeannette, who writes the Wok & Kin recipe site, presents chè trôi nước as a family recipe connected to her grandmother. In her account, her family makes and serves this sweet around Tết, the Lunar New Year, sets out small bowls holding three to five balls as an offering to the ancestors, and also eats it throughout the rest of the year. That is one family's table, not a rule for every Vietnamese household, but it is the setting this recipe comes from.
The dessert has four parts. A plain dough of glutinous rice flour and water is wrapped around mung bean paste that has been cooked with oil and a little sugar. The balls are boiled in plain water until they float, cooled in cold water, and then served in a syrup of palm sugar simmered with lightly pounded ginger. A small pot of coconut cream infused with a knotted pandan leaf, and a sprinkle of lightly toasted white sesame, finish the bowl. Jeannette writes that pandan gives the coconut cream a subtle aroma and that palm sugar gives the syrup a deeper sweetness, and she recommends eating the dessert warm.
The amounts and method here follow Jeannette's published recipe. Sekai Gohan has not kitchen-tested this recipe.
Southern Chè Trôi Nước and Northern Bánh Chay
Names for stuffed glutinous rice balls shift across Vietnam, and no single source here settles them for the whole country. Mai, who writes the MM Bon Appétit recipe site, calls her own sugar-filled bánh trôi a Northern Vietnamese version. She describes a similar Southern dessert called chè trôi nước, with a mung bean paste filling, and says the North calls that dessert bánh chay. This is one author's comparison, useful as a guide rather than a fixed map of names.
On the Northern side, sources describe bánh chay in the context of the Hàn Thực cold-food festival. A VietnamNet Global report on that festival describes bánh trôi as glutinous rice paste around brown sugar, served on a plate, and bánh chay as mung-bean-filled glutinous rice balls served in a bowl of sweet soup, listing cassava powder, water and sugar for the soup. A Hàn Thực bánh chay recipe by Cúc Nguyễn on Cookbeo thickens a sugar-water soup with tapioca starch and finishes it with reserved mung beans and vanilla; it has no ginger syrup and no pandan coconut cream.
The recipe in this article is a different build. The Wok & Kin page itself does not label its recipe by region. Sekai Gohan presents it here as a Southern-style chè trôi nước in line with Mai's comparison, because of its mung bean filling, its ginger and palm sugar syrup, and its separate pandan coconut cream. It is not the single Southern recipe, and it does not replace the starch-thickened Northern soup; the shared idea of a rice ball with mung beans inside does not make the two formulas the same.
For more dishes from across the country, see Vietnamese food on Sekai Gohan.
Ingredients: Dough, Filling, Syrup and Cream
Makes 10 servings.
Measure the three waters into three separate containers and the two salts into two small dishes before you start. The dough water, bean water and syrup water each go to a different place, as do the bean salt and the cream salt.
Equipment
- Mixing bowl with a cover, for the dough
- Pot for cooking the mung beans
- Food processor
- Pan for cooking the filling
- Plate or tray, for chilling the filling balls
- Large pot, for boiling the dumplings
- Slotted spoon
- Bowl of cold water, for cooling the dumplings
- Saucepan, for the ginger syrup
- Small pot, for the pandan coconut cream
- Small pan, for toasting the sesame
Choosing and Shopping
Glutinous rice flour, not regular rice flour. The dough is only glutinous rice flour and water. Another type of flour will not give the same result, so do not swap it or mix in ordinary rice flour. Look for packs labeled glutinous rice flour.
Peeled split mung beans. Using beans that are already peeled and split saves extra preparation. Look for that form by name.
Palm sugar. Palm sugar gives the syrup its deeper sweetness. White sugar would change the flavor, so this recipe keeps palm sugar.
Coconut cream, not coconut milk. The topping is coconut cream. Keep the cream in its own pot, apart from the syrup.
Pandan leaf. One fresh leaf, tied in a knot, scents the cream.
Method: Dough and Filling First, Then Wrap, Boil and Serve
Make the dough and let it rest while you cook and shape the filling. Then wrap and boil the balls, and make the syrup, cream and sesame in separate pans before bringing everything together.
When the Dough or Filling Misbehaves
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The rested dough feels dry when you knead it again | Add water 1 tbsp at a time, kneading after each addition, until smooth |
| The filling stays loose in the pan | Keep stirring with the oil and sugar until the paste sticks together in one mass |
| The filling is too soft to wrap neatly | Return the filling balls to the refrigerator until firm |
| The dumplings are not floating yet | Leave them in the boiling water until they rise to the surface |
| The dumplings stick together in the cooling bowl | Change the water so it stays cold, and drain once they are cool to the touch |
| Filling shows through the dough | Bring the dough fully around the filling, pinch the seam closed, and smooth the surface before boiling |
Variations Within the Same Recipe
- Overnight dough. The dough can rest overnight instead of for the 30-minute minimum. Only the resting time changes; the dough itself stays flour and water.
- Spring onion in the filling. Jeannette mentions that some families add sliced spring onion heads to the mung bean filling. This version leaves them out.
- White sugar in the syrup. Jeannette mentions regular white sugar as a stand-in for palm sugar if that is what you have. The syrup loses some of the deeper sweetness palm sugar gives.
- Offering bowls. In Jeannette's account, small bowls of three to five balls are set out for the ancestors at Tết. That describes how the bowls are arranged in her family; it is not the yield or a fixed portion for this recipe.
- Warm or hot. Jeannette recommends serving the dessert warm or hot, which is how this recipe finishes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the dough need yeast?
No. The Wok & Kin recipe lists no yeast, and its recipe card calls the dough's chilled time a "rising" time. Here it is treated as what it is: resting the flour-and-water dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Can I use another flour?
Jeannette writes that glutinous rice flour should not be replaced with another type of flour. This recipe does not mix in ordinary rice flour either.
How many dumplings does this make?
The recipe card gives 10 servings but no dumpling count and no weight per ball, so neither is given here. How many you get depends on how you divide the dough and filling.
How long does it take?
The Wok & Kin card shows 1 hour prep, 30 minutes cooking, a 30-minute dough rest, and 2 hours total. The method also asks you to cool the beans completely and to chill the filling balls until firm, and no time is given for either, so the 2-hour figure is not a promise. If you rest the dough overnight, the recipe spans overnight.
Is this the same as Northern bánh chay?
Not as made here. Mai of MM Bon Appétit describes Southern chè trôi nước and Northern bánh chay as related mung-bean-filled desserts. The Hàn Thực bánh chay recipe on Cookbeo serves its balls in a sugar soup thickened with tapioca starch and finished with mung beans and vanilla, and VietnamNet's report lists cassava powder, water and sugar for the bánh chay soup. This recipe instead uses a ginger and palm sugar syrup and a separate pandan coconut cream.
Can I make the syrup with white sugar?
Jeannette mentions white sugar as a possible substitute, but says palm sugar gives a deeper sweetness. This recipe keeps palm sugar and does not give a separate white-sugar amount.
Sources
- Jeannette, "Vietnamese Glutinous Rice Balls (Chè Trôi Nước)," Wok & Kin, published 2021-02-01, updated 2021-02-03. The recipe followed in this article: ingredients, amounts, method, servings and time card, notes on flour, mung beans, palm sugar and pandan, and the author's family account of Tết and ancestor offerings. https://www.wokandkin.com/vietnamese-glutinous-rice-balls-with-ginger-syrup/
- Cúc Nguyễn, "Cách làm bánh chay nhân đậu xanh cúng Tết Hàn Thực," Cookbeo, 2024-09-29. Used only to compare a Northern Hàn Thực bánh chay with a starch-thickened sugar soup, mung beans and vanilla; nothing from it is used in this recipe. https://cookbeo.com/recipes/banh-chay
- "Floating cakes for Cold Foods Festival," VietnamNet Global (credited to VNP/VNA). Used for the description of bánh trôi and bánh chay at the Hàn Thực festival and the bánh chay soup of cassava powder, water and sugar. https://vietnamnet.vn/en/floating-cakes-for-cold-foods-festival-727690.html
- Mai, "Bánh trôi • Sugar-filled rice flour balls," MM Bon Appétit, 2022-04-21. Used for the author's comparison of Northern bánh trôi, Southern chè trôi nước and Northern bánh chay. https://mmbonappetit.com/banh-troi/
