Chinese desserts () are

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

foods and dishes that are served with

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

, along with meals"Chinese Desserts."Kaleidoscope - Cultural China
. Accessed June 2011. or at the end of meals in

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many ot ...

. The desserts encompass a wide variety of ingredients commonly used in

East Asian cuisine This is a list of Asian cuisines, by region. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a specific culture or region. Asia, being the largest, most populous and culturally diverse continent, ...

s such as powdered or whole

glutinous rice Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...

sweet bean paste Sweet bean paste is a food ingredient used throughout East Asian cuisine, primarily as a filling for sweet desserts and pastries. Production The beans are usually boiled without sugar, mashed, and diluted into a slurry. The slurry is then strai ...

s, and

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar is ...

. Due to the many

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

s and the long

history of China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

, there are a great variety of desserts of many forms.

Types

The desserts found in China can be roughly divided into several types.

Bing

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

() 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 Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig.Lard
entry in the o ...

. Common bing types include

moon cake A mooncake () is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is about lunar appreciation and Moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between f ...

, sun cake (

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

varieties) and wife 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 Dragon's beard candy ( zh, t=龍鬚糖, s=龙须糖, p=lóng xū táng, first=t or Chinese cotton candy is a handmade traditional art of China. It is a traditional Chinese confectionary similar to floss halva or Western cotton candy, which can ...

, and

White Rabbit Creamy Candy White Rabbit Creamy Candy () is a brand of milk candy manufactured by Shanghai Guan Sheng Yuan Food, Ltd. (), in China. It is an iconic cultural brand and has been in production since 1943. Ingredients and varieties White Rabbit candies are ...

are a some examples of this category.

Guo

Gao or Guo ( or ) are rice based snacks that are typically steamed and may be made from glutinous or normal rice. In Fukien speaking Chinese populations, these are known as ', which are based on the Fukien pronunciation of "". 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 ''Nian gao'' (年糕; also ''niangao''; ''nin4 gou1'' in Cantonese), sometimes translated as year cake or New Year cake or Chinese New Year's cake, is a food prepared from glutinous rice flour and consumed in Chinese cuisine. It is also simply ...

, Bai Tang Gao, Tangyuan and Ang Ku Kueh.

Ices

Shaved ice Shaved ice is a large family of ice-based desserts made of fine shavings of ice or finely crushed ice and sweet condiments or syrups. Usually, the syrup is added after the ice has been frozen and shaved—typically at the point of sale; however, ...

desserts () with sweet condiments and syrup is common eaten as a dessert in Chinese culture.

Ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

is also commonly available throughout China.

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, though

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...

based jellies are also common in contemporary desserts. Some Chinese jellies, such as the

grass jelly Grass jelly, also known as leaf jelly or herb jelly, is a jelly-like dessert eaten in East and Southeast Asia. It is created by using Chinese mesona (a member of the mint family) and has a mild, slightly bitter taste. It is served chilled, w ...

and the

aiyu jelly Aiyu jelly (; or ; or simply ), known in Amoy Hokkien as ''ogio'' (), and as ice jelly in Singapore (), is a jelly made from the gel from the seeds of the awkeotsang creeping fig found in Taiwan and East Asian countries of the same climates and ...

set by themselves.

Soups

Chinese dessert soups ( or ) typically consists of sweet and usually hot soups and custards. They are collectively known as

tong sui ''Tong sui'' (; ), also known as ''tim tong'', is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. ''Tong sui'' are a Cantonese specialty and many varieties are rarely f ...

in Cantonese. Some of these soups are made with restorative properties in mind, in concordance with

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

. A commonly eaten dessert soup is

douhua Douhua () is a Chinese sweet or savoury snack made with very tender tofu. It is also referred to as doufuhua (), tofu pudding, soybean pudding or, particularly in northern China, tofu brains (). History Tofu is thought to have originated in ...

References

{{Portal bar, Food, China