17 Lunar New Year Desserts To Guarantee This One Is Extra Sweet
Start this year off in the sweetest way possible.
As we make our way through the first few weeks of 2024, there's so much more newness to celebrate on the horizon. Of course, we're talking about Lunar New Year (February 10, 2024), and what better way to usher it in with a variety of sweet desserts? The traditionally Chinese holiday is also celebrated by a variety of other Southeast Asian cultures, like Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, and beyond, so we’ve included a variety of Asian sweets treats from those cultures here too. Give one or all of them a try this Lunar New Year—you might just discover a new favorite.
If you’re unfamiliar, Lunar New Year is similar to the New Year’s Eve celebrated in Western cultures, with a few key differences. One is that it falls at the turn of the lunisolar calendar, which includes 12 full cycles of the moon (sometimes a month is added to keep it more in line with the solar year, which is why the date changes from year to year). Secondly, fortune, happiness, and health are the main themes of Lunar New Year, though superstitions and traditions vary from place to place. We hope these recipes will help broaden your perspective and inspire you to try something new (always a great tradition for any New Year!).
If you want an insider look into Chinese New Year (and have a few hours on your hands), check out our Budget Eats: Chinese New Year Edition. In it, June, our former senior food producer and resident budget eats expert, set out to cook a whole week's worth of Chinese New Year-themed meals for herself using ingredients from her mom's pantry. There are highs (tang yuan), there are lows (gingko nuts are a no-go), and you’ll ultimately leave with the reminder that “life really is too short if you live perpetually in the future, [so better celebrate now while you can].”
Mochi
Mochi is a sweet, chewy rice treat that hails from Japan. Serve these small, sweet cakes with a matcha hot chocolate or simply green tea. Use your leftover glutinous rice flour to make tang yuan, Chinese glutinous rice balls served for Lunar New Year that are similar to mochi (and are delicious year-round).
Get the Mochi recipe.
Ube Crinkle Cookies
With its striking color and a unique nutty vanilla flavor profile, ube has taken over the world. Upgrade your average crinkle cookie with ube extract and ube halaya, a popular Filipino pudding made with ube and condensed milk. Your New Year's guests won't know what hit 'em!
Get the Ube Crinkle Cookies recipe.
Fortune Cookies
Our best tip for making these Chinese cookies is to embrace trial and error! You’ll likely fail a few times before you get them right, but that's all part of the enjoyment. What better sentiment for ringing in the New Year?
Get the Fortune Cookies recipe.
Tang Yuan: Glutinous Rice Balls
Usually eaten on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, tang yuan (湯圓) is a sweet treat that symbolizes familial unity and togetherness. Our favorite fillings are sweet black sesame and ground peanuts, but feel free to get creative with your fillings (Nutella, tahini, peanut butter...).
Pandan Popsicles
When you steep fresh pandan leaves in water, you get the most fragrant tea with notes of both vanilla and almond. Combined with sugar, it’s a refreshing Southeast Asian beverage that makes for incredible pops. Pandan extract helps them achieve that brilliant green hue, and a drizzle of white chocolate and a sprinkle of shredded coconut flakes lend a touch of sweetness.
Get the Pandan Popsicles recipe.
Mango Sticky Rice
Rice... for dessert! A sweet or glutinous rice is used in this traditional Southeast Asian dessert that turns sticky and slightly sweet after being coated in a warm coconut sauce. This is a great dessert to make ahead of time as it's good cold, room temperature, or warm.
Get the Mango Sticky Rice recipe.
Castella Cake
Castella cake, simply referred to as castella, is an impossibly airy and light Japanese sponge cake flavored with honey. It’s humble—never decorated, always loaf-shaped—and so simple. It uses just six ingredients: bread flour, eggs, sugar, honey, and a dash of milk with a pinch of salt.
Get the Castella Cake recipe.
Homemade Mooncakes
Mooncakes are popular, (often) sweet treats consumed during the mid-autumn festival in Chinese culture to celebrate the harvest season. We love their variety of fillings—ranging from red bean, lotus seed, black sesame, or a mixture of fruits and nuts—any time of year, so give them a try this New Year's.
Get the Homemade Mooncakes recipe.
Halo-Halo
Halo-halo is a traditional Filipino shaved ice dessert that's topped with a rainbow of delicious ingredients. The beauty of halo-halo is how easy it is to assemble. You'll start by arranging the shaved ice in bowls or a tall glass, then go crazy with the toppings, from kaong (sugar palm fruit in syrup) to sweet chickpeas to ube ice cream.
Get the Halo-Halo recipe.
Sinh Tố Bơ
Sinh tố bơ is a go-to hot weather treat in Vietnam that we're enjoying all year round. In it, condensed milk is used to heighten the naturally sweet and nutty flavors of ripe avocado. If that hasn’t convinced you to try it, the English translation of sinh tố bơ is “butter fruit smoothie.” SIGN US UP!
Get the Sinh Tố Bơ recipe.
Mochi Donuts
Mochi donuts, also called pon de ring donuts, are a crispy, springy, sweet treat that combines the chewy texture of Japanese mochi with the crispy fried goodness of the American donut.
Get the Mochi Donuts recipe.
Durian Pie
Is it really possible to turn the world's smelliest fruit, durian, into a luscious creamy no-bake pie? We think so! Despite the smell of this infamous Southeast Asian fruit, durian naturally has a custardy, almost cheesecake-like texture that makes it perfect for filling a pie.
Get the Durian Pie recipe.
Matcha Cake
We love how light this matcha cake and its accompanying frosting are; it really helps the natural flavors (and color!) of matcha shine through. Make sure your heavy cream is cold before you whip it—the colder it is, the easier it will be to whip up, and it'll hold its shape better while frosting.
Get the Matcha Cake recipe.
Dalgona Candy
Popularized by Netflix's Squid Game, dalgona candy, or ppopgi, has been a popular Korean street snack since the '60s and '70s. Try your hand at making it this Lunar New Year for a fun treat to share with friends and family.
Get the Dalgona Candy recipe.
"Rolling Donkey"
June, Delish's former senior food producer and resident budget eats expert, set out to cook a whole week's worth of Chinese New Year-themed meals for herself using ingredients from her mom's pantry. She filled these lu da gun with a not-so-traditional brown-sugar-butterscotch-and-mung bean mixture that made them extra special.
Watch June attempt "Rolling Donkey" in her Budget Eats: Chinese New Year Edition.
开口笑 or "Open Mouth Smiles"
June, Delish's former senior food producer and resident budget eats expert, set out to cook a whole week's worth of Chinese New Year-themed meals for herself using ingredients from her mom's pantry. These kai kou xiao didn't turn out exactly right, but were still a very enjoyable treat.
Watch June attempt "Open Mouth Smiles" in her Budget Eats: Chinese New Year Edition.
Black Sesame Soup
June, Delish's former senior food producer and resident budget eats expert, set out to cook a whole week's worth of Chinese New Year-themed meals for herself using ingredients from her mom's pantry. Sweet tang yuan dumplings can usually be served straight in the water that they're cooked in, but June wanted to be a little extra for the new year and made one of her favorite sweet soups, 芝麻糊, or black sesame soup.
Get the Black Sesame Soup recipe.
