Chinese desserts () are sweet foods and dishes that are served with Chinese tea, along with meals[ "Chinese Desserts." Kaleidoscope - Cultural China . Accessed June 2011.] or at the end of meals in Chinese cuisine. The desserts encompass a wide variety of ingredients commonly used in East Asian cuisines such as powdered or whole glutinous rice, sweet bean pastes, and agar. Due to the many and the long history of China, there are a great variety of desserts of many forms.
Categories
The numerous desserts found in China can be roughly divided into several categories. For a list of more specific types of desserts, see List of Chinese desserts.
Bing
Bing () are baked wheat flour based confections. These are either similar to the short-pastry crust of western cuisine or flaky puff pastry, the latter of which is often known as
su (). The preferred fat used for bing is usually
lard. Common bing types include
moon cake, sun cake (Beijing and Taiwan varieties) and
sweetheart cake.
Candies
Chinese candies and sweets, called
táng (),
are usually made with cane sugar, malt sugar, and honey. These sweets often consists of nuts or fruits that are mixed into syrup whole or in pastes to flavour or give the candies their textures. Dragon's beard candy and White Rabbit Creamy Candy are a some examples of this category.
Guo
Kueh ( or ) are rice-based snacks that are typically steamed
and may be made from glutinous or normal rice. In
Min nan speaking Chinese populations, these are known as
Kuei, which are based on the Fukien pronunciation of "粿". These rice-based snacks have a wide variety of textures and can be chewy, jelly-like, fluffy or rather firm and unlike bings very different from western pastries. Various types of gao include
Nian gao, Bai Tang Gao, Tangyuan and Ang Ku Kueh.
Soups
Chinese dessert soups ( or ) typically consists of sweet and usually hot soups
and custards. They are collectively known as
tong sui in Cantonese. Some of these soups are made with restorative properties in mind, in concordance with traditional Chinese medicine. A commonly eaten dessert soup is
douhua.
Jellies
Chinese jellies are known collectively in the language as
jellies or ices ( or ). Many jelly desserts are traditionally set with
agar and are flavored with fruits, bean paste or flavoring, such as
almond tofu, though
gelatin based jellies are also common in contemporary desserts. Some Chinese jellies, such as the
grass jelly and the
aiyu jelly set by themselves.
Ices
Chhoah-peng desserts () with sweet condiments and syrup is common eaten as a dessert in Chinese culture.
is also commonly available throughout China.
See also
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Hangwa – Korean confections
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Wagashi – Japanese confections
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Chinese bakery products
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Huangqiao Sesame Cake
