Serves: 20

2 cups , Chinese jujubes, (red dates)
water to cover
1 cup glutinous rice flour

1. Wash red dates and place in a saucepan with water. Bring to a boil then cook, uncovered, over medium heat until softened (about 20 minutes).

2. Skin and pit dates. Puree the pulp by forcing it through a ricer or fine sieve.

3. Gradually add glutinous rice flour to the puree and knead the mixture to a stiff paste-like dough.

4. Form the dough into a long cylinder about 1 inch in diameter. Then cut in 1/2-inch rounds and flatten each slightly.

5. Line a small baking tin with foil or waxed paper, arrange the rounds on top. Steam until the cakes are done (about 10 minutes). (See HOW-TO, _Steaming.) Serve hot.

NOTE: In China, the dough was shaped in wooden molds. The cakes themselves were steamed on bamboo leaves to keep them from sticking, then served right on the leaf.

VARIATIONS:
* In step 3, add 1 tablespoon lard to the dough.
* After step 4, prepare the following mixture to use as a cake filling: Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil. Add 1 tablespoon sesame seeds and stir once or twice. Then add 1/2 cup walnut meats, blanched and chopped fine, and 1/3 cup sugar. Toss quickly to coat seeds and nuts with the sugar. Add 1 teaspoonful of this mixture to each disk of dough pinch the disk into a ball to enclose the filling. Arrange, pinched-side down, on a baking tin and steam as in step 5.

The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. ©1994 by Gloria Bley Miller.

Nutritional Facts:

Serves: 20
Calories from Fat: 0

More Recipes from the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook Cookbook:
*Sweet Dishes
Almond Cookies
Almond Float I
Almond Float II
Banana Gelatin
Eight Precious Pudding
Eight Precious Pudding: Fruit and Nut Combinations
Eight Precious Pudding: Sweetened Water
Ginger Soup
Ginger Soup: Dumplings
Glazed Chestnut Balls
Glazed Whole Chestnuts
Green Pea Pudding
Honeyed Apples
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture A
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture B
Honeyed Apples: Syrup Mixture C
Honeyed Bananas
Honeyed Crab Apples
Hot Lotus Tea
Peking Dust I
Peking Dust II
Peking Dust: Glazed Fruit
Pineapple Gelatin
Sesame Seed Cookies
Spiced Roasted Peanuts
Steamed Pears
Steamed Red Date Cake
Steamed Sponge Cake
Sugared Chestnut Balls
Sugared Walnuts
Sweet Almond Tea I
Sweet Almond Tea II
Sweet Almond Tea III
Sweet Grapefruit Tea
Sweet Orange Tea I
Sweet Orange Tea II
Sweet Peanut Soup
Sweet Pineapple Tea
Sweet Walnut Tea
Sweetened Water
Turkish Barley Pudding
Water Chestnut Pudding