Sweet Potato Pumpkin

This is a beautiful appetizer/desert to bring to Halloween party.

Ingredients:

1. Sweet potato - 4 medium size. About 4 cups after steaming
2. Glutinous rice flour （糯米粉） - 2 1/2 cup
3. Rice flour （粘米粉）- 1 3/4 cup
4. Sugar - 3/4 cup
5. Chocolate  (for pumpkin stem) - 2 mini Hershey bars
6. Optional: Kool-aid blue drink powder or blue food color (use to make green leaf.) - 1 pack
7. Optional: Purple-yam or red bean paste filling

This makes about 40-50 pumpkins.

Note the amount of rice flour and Glutinous rice flour varies because the steamed potato may have different moisture. The amount of sugar also depends on how sweet your potato is and your sweet tooth.
Material cost: approx $6.70 (Not include filling) (see post - Economics of home cooking)

Equipment:

Steamer, Measuring cup, Mixing bowl, Pastry board, Pastry Rolling Pin, Dinner knife, Spatula

Steps:

1. Steam the sweet potatoes and peel off the skin. Put in a bowl and mash it until there are no more lumps.

2. Stir in sugar. Add rice flour and glutinous rice flour gradually, all the while mixing. Continue until the dough doesn't stick to your hands.  

3. Separate the dough and roll into balls (approx 1 - 1.5" diameter).

4. Melt the chocolate in microwave. Add some dough to knead it into brown dough for the pumpkin stem. Knead in some more rice flour if it is too sticky. Make small pumpkin stems.

5. Place each sweet potato dough on palm, use back of an dinner knife to impress the pumpkin strips.

6. Take a stem and place in on the ball, use thumb and index finger to push the stem into the ball. That will flat the ball some to make it more like a pumpkin.

7. Make sure the steamer water is boiling, then place the pumpkins in steamer.  Cover the steamer.

8. Steam for 10 minutes and take them out to cool off.  Put the pumpkins in a sealed food container to prevent them from getting dried. 

Options:

1. To add filling, just reduce your pumpkin dough ball in half. Use the same amount filling, wrap the filling in the dough. Follow the same steps above to engrave and steam the pumpkins.

2.  To make green leaf, add the blue food color or blue Kool-Aid drink powder in the sweet potato dough (Yellow+Blue = Green). Roll the dough flat, and use knife to carve out the shape of a leaf. Place it on the pumpkin for decoration. 

Happy Halloween!