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Making pancakes for breakfast? Why not turn it into an even healthier breakfast meal with Chinese sweet potato pancakes? This recipe uses sweet potatoes and glutinous rice flour as the base, flavored with a bit of sugar and sesame seeds (white and black).
What To Love About Chinese Sweet Potato Pancakes
A typical pancake requires flour, baking soda, baking powder, and eggs, among other things. If you look at the nutritional aspect of pancakes, they are actually not that healthy. Pancakes are high in fat and sugar and low in protein and fiber.
What if I tell you there is a healthier take on pancakes? With Chinese sweet potato pancakes, you can enjoy the nutritional benefits of sweet potatoes! It is mixed with glutinous rice flour, a gluten-free flour with a sticky and stretchy texture when cooked.
You will love that you can put a filling in the center of the pancake for a creamy sensation as you enjoy its warm, chewy, and slightly crunchy exterior.
This can be made sweet or salty, depending on your preference. It is the perfect dish for a light breakfast, snack, or appetizer done in less than 20 minutes.
Top Recommendations And Alternatives
The ingredients you need are for the dough and filling. If you need an alternative to an ingredient, I listed below some suggestions to consider. I also share a few recommendations on how to further customize the pancakes according to your liking.
- Sweet potatoes: Sweet potatoes have various types, such as garnet, purple, and Japanese sweet potatoes. You can use any type of sweet potato available to you. However, keep in mind that the color of the pancake will depend on the color of the sweet potato used. Cut the sweet potato into thin slices before steaming. It is better to cut it into small pieces to cook it faster for steaming. After steaming, the sweet potatoes are mashed into a paste to mix well with the glutinous rice flour. If you have leftover sweet potatoes, you can use them to make Sweet Potato Balls, Purple Sweet Potato Paste, and Purple Sweet Potato Bun.
- Glutinous rice flour: Do not confuse glutinous rice flour with rice flour. Remember, glutinous rice flouris made from glutinous rice or sticky rice, while rice flour is made from milled long or medium-grain white rice, such as japonica, sinandomeng, angelica, or indica, to name a few. These cannot be interchanged since rice flour will not give the same chewy and sticky texture as glutinous rice flour. When combined with mashed sweet potatoes, you should be able to make a smooth firm dough. If the dough is still too soft, gradually add glutinous rice flour until you get the desired dough consistency. In case you can’t find glutinous rice flour, you can swap it with rice flour or tapioca flour, but the texture will be different.
- Filling: The filling is a mix of brown sugar, sesame seeds(white and black), and glutinous rice flour. It is similar to the filling used in sugar buns I made. It is placed in the center of the pancake before frying in the pan. Once it is fried, the sugar melts and fuses with the sesame seeds and flour, giving you a melty sweet filling. You can use white sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, or coconut sugar. I add a few black sesame seeds along with white sesame seeds for the filling, but you can use only one type of sesame seed. White sesame seeds have a nutty flavor and give the filling a crunchy texture. Black sesame seeds can be substituted for white sesame seeds, but are typically more potent than white. Make your pancakes more flavorful with different fillings, such as:
- Chopped scallions (folded with the dough for a savory version)
- Yam paste
- Lotus seed paste
- Purple sweet potato paste
- Black sesame paste
- Taro paste
- Red bean paste
- Coating: Before frying the assembled pancakes with filling, I coated them with more white sesame seeds for a crunchy texture and additional nuttiness. You can swap this with black sesame seeds as well.
How To Serve Chinese Sweet Potato Pancakes
You can enjoy this on its own since the filling is already tasty enough. However, if you decide to make the salty version of this with chopped scallions only, I recommend adding a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.
For something creamy, mix sour cream with chopped chives, salt, and black pepper. If you made the sweet version of sweet potato pancakes, it pairs well with hot tea or a sweet syrup.
Ingredients And Kitchenware To Prepare
To prepare the sweet potatoes for the dough, I steamed it until soft enough to mash. You can use a steamer appliance or other DIY methods. Learn how to steam without a steamer using my 5 DIY methods: pan with steamer rack, microwave, pan with sieve, rice cooker, and instant pot.
Prepare your mixing bowls for the dough and filling. Then, you will also need a non-stick pan to pan-fry the pancakes. The ingredients to prepare are:
- 2 to 4 sweet potatoes (sliced, about 500g)
- 1/2 to 1 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp white sesame seeds(with some black sesame seeds)
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- Coating (white sesame seeds)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
10 Steps To Make Chinese Sweet Potato Pancakes
Finish this recipe in 10 easy steps! Basically, you steam the potatoes, make the dough, make the filling, assemble the pancakes, and fry in the pan. Watch each step closely with my Instagram or TikTok tutorial video.
- Clean the potatoes, peel the skin, and cut it into thin slices. Prepare a steamer and steam the sliced sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes.
- Once the potatoes are soft, mash the steamed potatoes with a fork until smooth.
- Gradually add glutinous rice flour and stir until you form a smooth, non-sticky dough.
- Take a portion of the dough and roll it into a small ball.
- In a bowl, mix brown sugar, white sesame seeds, and flour to create the filling.
- Flatten the dough ball into a circular wrapper and add a spoonful of the brown sugar filling in the center.
- Shape it into a round ball again and flatten it with your hands to create a flat pancake.
- Coat each side of the pancake with white sesame seeds. Gently press the pancake to let the white sesame seeds stick.
- Brush oil on the pan and heat it.
- Fry the sweet potato pancakes on low heat until golden on both sides.
Enjoy the crispy and tender sweet potato pancakes! Store them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat it in a pan or air fryer for a crisp exterior.
Sweet Potato Pancakes (Gluten-Free & Vegan!)
Ingredients
- 2 to 4 sweet potatoes sliced, about 500g
- 1/2 to 1 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp white sesame seeds with some black sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- Coating white sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
Instructions
- Clean the potatoes, peel the skin, and cut it into thin slices. Prepare a steamer and steam the sliced sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes.
- Once the potatoes are soft, mash the steamed potatoes with a fork until smooth.
- Gradually add glutinous rice flour and stir until you form a smooth, non-sticky dough.
- Take a portion of the dough and roll it into a small ball.
- In a bowl, mix brown sugar, white sesame seeds, and flour to create the filling.
- Flatten the dough ball into a circular wrapper and add a spoonful of the brown sugar filling in the center.
- Shape it into a round ball again and flatten it with your hands to create a flat pancake.
- Coat each side of the pancake with white sesame seeds. Gently press the pancake to let the white sesame seeds stick.
- Brush oil on the pan and heat it.
- Fry the sweet potato pancakes on low heat until golden on both sides.
