Hong Kong, famously known as the culinary capital of Asia, has some of the paramount desserts and foods, of Corse the world’s best restaurant.
With the classic dim sum to the street side desserts to the pastries and bakeries that the city offers, here is a collection of desserts that you must try when you visit Hong Kong, inclusive of their recipe, say what? Hong Kong cuisines at the comfort of your kitchen.
It is a fact that Hong Kong takes dining very seriously; hence not afraid of taking breaks for the love of desserts.
The desserts are some of the best and famous you can find in Hong Kong. Let’s take a look.
1. Hong Kong-Style Milk Pudding
The Chinese believe that ginger has health benefits, and that’s why they tend to use it as an ingredient in their recipes.
One significant benefit is that while you drink ginger during the cold season, it makes you warm on the inside while exhales cold air .
In that case, milk pudding is a typical dessert in Hong Kong; this milk is a 4minutes preparation dessert.
This dessert is mainly for the lovers of ginger dessert. It is soft and smooth, and the ginger adds a spicy flavor and taste. The magic happens with the chemical reaction of the ginger, which then hardens the milk into a pudding.
With every spoon, the quivering pudding is silky and smooth and worth every taste. here is a recipe link that will excite you with its simplicity and complex flavor
2. Mango sago with pomelo
The dessert is a combination of mango sago and pomelo; hence, a mixture of different cultures makes this yummy delicious, and refreshing dessert for a hot weather day.
The recipe is simple and easy to make, especially when you feel pretty lousy to prepare a whole meal; in essence, it is a healthy way of snacking.
In this recipe, you can also get alternative ingredients if you don’t have them, like using fresh milk in place of coconut. You don’t have to worry about its tastes as it will still have the same ones as those found in the restaurants.
Here is a link you may want to try for this recipe am sure you won’t regret having chosen this recipe
3. Hong Kong mango pancake
This is a dim sum dessert typical in Hong Kong. It is a delicate but straightforward made pancake with fresh mango fillings and whipped cream.
This dessert draws its sweetness and flavor based on the mango, which is the main ingredient. However, in the restaurant, you find that it’s not as sweet or juicy as you may want it to be; hence, you should note these areas while preparing from home.
Unlike the everyday desserts you find in restaurants and streets, you want to prepare a better, juicier, and fruitier version of the pancake.
Here is a link you can practice for this recipe.
4. Hong Kong moon cake
This moon cake is eaten during the festivals in the mid-autumn in late September and early October. Usually, the celebrations are to mark the end of harvest.
In contrast to its name, the moon cake is not a cake but a pastry with a thick filling. Honking moon cakes are the bestselling as the quality of each moon cake is top-notch.
In this moon cake, the Hong Kong-style outer cover is thin with the lotus paste having a perfect consistency and less oil, and the egg yolk is perfectly cooked, not too much.
So for the vegans, they can get mooncakes without the egg yolks. Here is a link for more information into the moon cake the linked autumn mid-festivals.
5. Osmanthus jelly
Osmanthus jelly is attractive with its appearance, which is crystal-like studded with goji berries. It is lightly scented and has a taste of rock sugar.
Although the osmanthus flower is edible, its petals are scented and slightly bitter, making it an ideal dessert to use with wine or tea.
It also has health benefits like improving the skin, detoxifying the body, beneficial for the lungs.
The recipe is simple to make. All you need is dried osmanthus flower, goji berries, and rock sugar. The items are readily available in Chinese medical stores and grocery shops.
You can use agar agar or Gallatin, or jelly powder in making the osmanthus jelly. Here is the link to help you in preparing this dessert
6. Hong Kong paper wrap sponge cake
The Hong Kong paper wrap sponge cake is quite common in the area. You find it most coffee shops and bakeries sold at a reasonable price; hence it is affordable.
Many kinds of sponge cake recipes and techniques, significantly cut across the Asian continent, are either modernized or traditional, each with their levels of uniqueness.
Here is a traditional pepper wrapped cake recipe with the traditional look and taste just like those sold in the Asian bakeries.
The cakes are tiny and soft, fluffy, light, and are absolutely amazing, and very easy to make.
This will undoubtedly bring back some old childhood memories. Find the recipe interesting? Don’t fail to follow this link for a better experience.
7. Hong Kong read bean steamed rice cake (put chai ko)
It is a classic Hong Kong dessert rarely cooked in other Asian continents hence authentic Chinese dessert.
Its preparation takes quite some time as making the red bean alone takes an hour to boil and steam, but if patience is not your portion, worry not as there are many ways to make this recipe through shortening the time.
In this case, the pressure cooker comes handy, and in just half an hour, your red bean should be ready. We are fortunate to live in this era of time where everything has been made easy with technology.
The beans spread evenly on the cake. Also, it has a springy and soft texture with some level of sweetness.
Here is the link to the recipe. I know you will like this version.
8. Mango sago with coconut milk
It traces its origin in Hong Kong, but it is mainly combined with pomelo. It has spread to other Asian countries like Taiwan and Singapore.
It is a simple dessert to make almost resembles a mango smoothie with sago pearls, which may require some work.
The good thing about living in tropical regions you consistently have fruits readily available for you.
This dessert is especially suitable during the hot season. This mango sago involves mango, coconut milk, and yummy sago pearl as the main ingredients for the recipe.
You can learn how to make this restaurant-worthy mango sago by following this link and enjoy the dessert with your loved ones.
9. Hong Kong eggetts
This is a classic Hong Kong street food and a dessert, and they test best the moment they are served hot to you by the vendor.
They are crunchy on the exterior but soft on the inside and can easily be broken into pieces.
They are also known as little eggs in china. The recipe for this dessert remains the same, with the only difference being that it can now be found in malls and other food courts.
Various eggetts range from chocolate to mocha to red bean, and others are served with food and whipped with crème for the crepe filling.
However, the street vendors still make them with one flavor and if you find such, know they are the most authentic eggets.
But you can also make them at the comfort of your home from instance follow this link.
10. Purple sweet potato snow skin moon cake
The sweet potato moon cake? Are you wondering if it’s even possible? The truth is yes, you can make this dessert out of the sweet potato, and a combo of both the taste and texture is perfect and so delicious at the same time.
It is preferably made during the mid-autumn festivals also to mark the end of the harvest period.
This recipe uses the purple sweet potato that is cultivated in Australia. It has less moisture than the rest from other countries and is the perfect ingredient for this mooncake.
For the filling, you can also use coconut milk which gives a wow fragrance. Here is the recipe link if you need to make your moon cake at home.
11. Hong Kong style pan-fried radish cake
This pan-fried radish cake is mainly found in the dim sum restaurants of Hong Kong. These delicious treats are made from Japanese daikon.
The ingredient is first cooked and steamed in a steamer pot, then pan-fried to give the outer layer a crispy texture and keeping the inner layer soft, smooth and juicy.
Without knowledge and enough research, your first experience may be challenging, but do not give up.
Here is a tip you should start with: you see, the restaurants will steam the liquid butter over boiling water.
This turns out perfect because of the kind of stove they use. At home, cook the liquid butter before steaming it.
This will ensure that excess moisture is removed. See link for more information
12. Hong Kong style French toast
Hong Kong-style French toast is a traditional breakfast toast and can be a snack on the streets of Hong Kong. One particular cha cha specialty serves it with tea.
This day is asking myself how a simple dish can turn out to be a complex one and full of delicious and perfect textures. Then I remember in the Chinese e world of culinary creation, nothing is simple.
This Hong Kong-style French toast uses thick white bread, black and white sweetened condensed milk, and kaya jam eggs that are all deep-fried and then topped with butter.
The French toast is sweet with a crispy texture on the outside and soft inside, thus a delicious breakfast meal. Here is a guide for more information.
13. Wife biscuits
They say it’s originally from Hong Kong but has spread to Asian regions, and its popularity has since grown over the years.
The wife biscuits if you read the history of how it came to be in existence where a wife decides to sell herself so that her father-in-law can get money for medication in return, the husband decides to make this cake to honor her wife’s actions.
The story is more about love and selflessness; hence the birth of the wife biscuits is more a symbol of both.
This wife biscuit is a traditional Chinese pastry with thin flaky skin with a topping made from winter melon and sesame seeds.
You can follow this link for further information about the recipe.
14. Matcha ice cream
This culinary dessert is a descent from japan, but it is prevalent in Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong. You find people streaming in this restaurants over the weekend during the summer season.
It is also a vegan or vegetarian treat and hence very healthy and hence can favor people of diverse ages and different dietary restrictions
This matcha ice cream is light and combines the taste of green tea with lemon, giving it a fantastic flavor and easy is to make.
However, it uses up a few ingredients. Hence it’s easy to make what you only need is the ice-cream maker, and you are off to a good start.
Hopefully, you will enjoy making this green tea ice cream, and here is a link to make it memorable.
15. Tang Yuan
This dessert is usually eaten on the 15th day of the lunar year, and it symbolizes family unity or togetherness. Nevertheless, this tang yuan is not reserved for that feast alone but can always be taken at any time of the year.
This dish in Hong Kong is especially prominent with children. They are simply the balls of glutinous rice flour infused with paste fillings such as sesame and peanut.
There are no restrictions to stuffing these treats. You can use anything and everything to stuff it. On the streets of Hong Kong, they are pretty affordable to buy, but they can also be made at home, and the best thing about them is that it is fun to make them.
So here is a recipe I thought you might want to use while making this dish from home.
16. Pineapple Buns
You realize pineapple burns do not derive their name because pineapple forms part of the ingredients but because the buns other look resembles that of a pineapple; hence do not rush into the stores searching for pineapples to make this dessert.
This dessert is a dim sum that can be served for breakfast as well as a snack.
The outer part of this bun is crunchy, and the inside is soft and fluffy. It sometimes comes with a custard or red bean filling and also can be served with butter in the middle of the hot bun for the extra flavor.
This is a Cantonese / Hong Kong dessert, which you should learn how to prepare at the comfort of your home. I recommend using this link for the recipe for a more positive outcome.
17. Durian pancake
This pancake dessert has been popular for a long time, and Hong Kong restaurants and café have also adopted it.
This traditional dessert is loads of cream, fruits, biscuits, cheese, or syrup. Pancake and crepes are the same.
The only difference is that the crepe is thinner, but it is pancake. So you will find the fresh sweat durian coupled with a creamy filling.
The pancakes are light and fluffy. Once you take a bite, you will forever be durian fun, especially for those who never tried this delicious or dislike the durian fruits.
There are many more recipes on the internet that can make this delicious, but here is one I choose for you. Hopefully, it will be a game-changer. Follow this link.
