12 Chinese Desserts with Surprising Ingredients

Chinese desserts are just as essential to their culinary legacy as fried rice, scallion pancakes and other savory dishes. Ginger, sweet potato, wintermelon and milk take the lead in these sugary treats.

1. Fried Milk

"Fried milk" isn't a misnomer: you might confuse this beloved Chinese dessert for mozzarella sticks until you take a bite and find creamy milk inside the crust. Cooks solidify the milk with corn starch before frying so that it doesn't produce a runny mess.

2. Ginger Milk Curd

The Chinese name for ginger milk curd means "ginger juice bumping into milk," a fitting descriptor for the spicy, creamy pudding. Cooks start by grating and sieving fresh ginger to produce a fragrant juice. Afterward, they combine the ginger with hot milk and sugar, then top the silky curd with honey and berries.

3. Crystal Cake

Break open a crystal cake, and you'll find glittering rock sugar like the inside of a geode. White sugar, rose petals and walnuts are a few of the ingredients that flavor crystal cakes. These Chinese desserts with an "aroma of rose and [a] fine scent of orange" date back to the 900s, making them part of culinary history.

4. Bingfen

Next time you're sweltering in the summer heat, skip the ice cream and try Bingfen instead. Bingfen starts with a bowl of clear "ice jelly." Once you've made the jelly from a powdered mix, you'll heap your bowl with a variety of sweet and savory toppings. Nuts, rice cakes, toasted sesame seeds, diced watermelon, raisins, lemon slices and peanut sauce are just a few of your options.

5. Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet potato soup turns vegetables into a cozy dessert. This traditional Chinese comfort food takes little time to make: just simmer crushed ginger with hunks of sweet potato, then add brown sugar and optional ingredients, such as peach gum and red beans. The brilliantly orange vegetables melt in your mouth as you savor the spice.

6. Tang yuan

Celebrate the Lantern Festival with tang yuan, a traditional Chinese snack. Tang yuan comes in countless varieties, but the basic recipe consists of stuffed dough balls floating in a sweet broth. Some cooks fill their dough with butter and sesame seeds, while others mix together peanut butter and spices. Other ingredients include fruit preserves, edible flowers, chocolate and rock candy. Broths range from sugary tong sui to green tea.

7. Ang ku kueh

Ang ku kueh (red tortoise cake) is a small oval-shaped treat that resembles a tortoise shell. The ingredients can vary, but cooks frequently make red tortoise cake with sweet potatoes, rice flour and mung bean filling, then press the dough into a mold and serve the steamed cakes on banana leaves. The cakes represent happiness and longevity in Chinese culture.

8. Hasma

You won't believe it, but Chinese diners don't just eat frogs legs for dinner--they make dessert from the fatty tissues next to the fallopian tubes. Hasma is a delicacy that combines fatty frog tissues, dried red dates, dried goji berries and rock sugar into a sweet soup. Some cooks add honey dates, snow fungus, lotus seeds and other treats.

9. Sugar Painting

Sugar painting is a traditional Chinese art form that's elegant and delicious. Chinese artisans build delicate two-dimensional sculptures with molten sugar, creating pieces that shimmer in the light like honey. Expert artists make sugar paintings in a single stroke like calligraphy.

10. Sweetheart Cake

According to Chinese legend, a married man invented sweetheart cakes after his wife sold herself into slavery to support her sick father. The man sold the cakes until he earned enough to buy his wife back. Today, you can snack on these round, flaky pastries stuffed with ground sesame seeds, coconut flakes and candied wintermelon.

11. Xi gua lao

Xi gua lao resembles a regular watermelon slice, but a single bite reveals the fruity, syrupy sweetness. Cooks make a syrup with water, agar vanilla powder and sugar, then combine the syrup with watermelon juice and crushed cherries. Afterward, they shape the treat into triangles like watermelon slices.

12. Grass Jelly

Blades of grass sound unappetizing, but grass jelly doesn't feature the plants you'd find in your lawn--instead, the main ingredient is Platostoma palustre, a plant related to mint. Cooks make grass jelly at home or buy canned versions like cranberry sauce. Typically, you don't eat grass jelly on its own; instead, you serve the glistening cubes with fruit, tapioca pearls and condensed milk.

Have you tried any of these Chinese desserts? Which treats do you want to try? Share your thoughts in the comments.