9 Refreshing Chinese Dessert Recipes To Beat The Heat With
When ice cream and popsicles don’t cut it, these Chinese desserts might
By The Weekly Team -
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Yes, it’s back—the unbearable tropical heat. Once again, the sun is battering down on us with its piercing rays, and the afternoon stillness couldn’t be more stifling. Reason enough to blast the air conditioner? Certainly. But there is another solution: to combat that heat from within.
Chinese desserts are often split into two camps, “heaty” and “cooling”, and in the name of El Nino we have rounded up some of our favourite ones that’ll help you balance your “yin”. These recipes contain ingredients that can relieve the intense heat we’ve been feeling as of late—and provide a tasty respite during excessively bad midday slumps.
1. Papaya & Red Date Cooling Chinese Dessert Soup
Photo: bauersyndication.com.au
This papaya and snow fungus sweet soup is great as a cold dessert. It helps to refresh the body in hot weather and is excellent after eating lots of deep fried foods.
2. Refreshing Cheng Tng
Versatile for Singapore’s hot and rainy weather, cheng tng has been a longstanding dessert passed down by generation to generation. Try this recipe to recreate this sweet and refreshing dessert sold at every hawker stall.
3. Sweet Potato, Red Date & Snow Fungus Soup
Photo: bauersyndication.com.au
This sweet potato soup is good for your skin and hair. You can cook it in advance and keep it in the fridge to reheat for an afternoon snack or evening dessert.
4. White Fungus And Ginkgo Nuts Dessert Soup With Dried Longan And Red Dates
The hot days are getting hotter, and there’s no better time to reintroduce the rejuvenating desserts that’ll help us perk up. This White Fungus, Ginkgo Nuts with Dried Longan and Red Dates dessert soup is a popular Chinese dessert that’ll fit right into the bill.
5. Sago Gula Melaka Pudding
Gula melaka or palm sugar has a wonderful malted sweetness that transforms a dish. It’s an ingredient in many Singaporean desserts, including chendol and ondeh-ondeh. This Sago Gula Melaka Pudding recipe by Chef Ambrose Poh of Allspice Institute is surprisingly simple to make, and you can prep the sago or tapioca pearls ahead, and drizzle them with the gula melaka sauce when ready to serve.
6. Chinese Pear & Snow Fungus Soup
Counter the hot weather with this easy-to-cook Chinese pear and snow fungus soup that contains sweet, cooling ingredients, such as sugared tangerines, honey dates, red dates, and fresh pear.
7. Sugar Cane Herbal Tea
If you are bearing the brunt of the weather, let the heat motivate you to prepare this simple but tasty brew of sugar cane herbal tea which contains dried sugar cane and golden luo han guo (monk fruit).
8. Bubur Cha Cha With Sweet Pumpkin
Instead of the usual plain bubur cha cha, try making this variation with a sweet twist. Adding sweet pumpkin and Indonesian palm sugar adds a unique flavour and a vibrant orange hue. It can be served warm or cold.
9. Waterless Soup
This amazing waterless soup is specially created by Chef Leong Chee Yeng, Chinese Executive Chef of Jade Restaurant, The Fullerton Hotel, as a tribute to Singapore.
This article was originally published on Mar 29, 2024 and updated on Mar 8, 2025.