中文：心太软（蜜汁糯米红枣）

This snack was crazily popular about a decade ago in main China. Jujubes and sweet rice are among Chinese favorite dessert ingredients. When you combine both of them together, magic happens. They taste so good with each other. The jujubes have a unique sweetness. The mini sweet rice cakes are soft and slightly chewy. They are also thinly coated with rock sugar syrup which complements the sweetness from jujubes, bringing the whole snack to a new level.

Ingredients:

14 to 16 big dried jujubes
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
4 to 5 tablespoons whole milk / water
2 to 3 tablespoon rock crystal white sugar
3 to 4 tbalespoons water
water for soaking and steaming

Directions：

Soack the jujubes in warm water for 2 to 4 hours to rehydrate the jujubes. Change the water twice in between to keep it warm.

Drain the jujubes. With a small sharp knife, cut each of them open and remove the cores. Be careful not to cut the date in halves or cut yourself. O(∩_∩)O~

In a bowl, combie sweet rice flour and milk / water. Whisk and then knead with hands unitl it forms a smooth dough ball. Sweet rice has no gluten. So it is normal that the dough might fall apart during kneading process.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each of them into a small log and cut each of them into 4 pieces. So we should have 16 pieces, each for a jujube.

Stuff each jujube with a piece of sweet rice cake.

Place them on a steaming rack.

Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes.

When the jujubes are be steaming, I make rock candy / sugar syrup. Rock candy is made from cane sugar. It is further exacted and processed so that it is crystalized and has a better sweet flavor. That is why it is called rock candy / sugar. It is also a stable and important ingredient in Asian desserts.

In a small pot, combine rock candy / sugar, heat on medium heat until it can thinly coat the back of a spoon. Stir from time to time to prevent burning.

Toss the steamed jujubes in rock sugar syrup so that they are evenly coated.

You can serve the jujubes hot or cold. I personally prefer cold ones. The sweet rice cakes in the middle develop become more chewy when cooled to room temperature. I just love to enjoy them that way.