Kuih Bangkit ~ Gluten Free Coconut Cream Cookies 薯粉饼

Kuih Bangkit.... It is a local traditional cookie, one of the staples for Chinese New Year and Eid.
Some people will make this with tapioca starch, some swear by arrowroot flour for best melt in the mouth effect and some will use sago flour to replace that elusive arrowroot flour.

In the olden days, this cookie was baked over charcoal. And I have only seen that being done once in my life, at my kindergarten teacher's home. I'm glad that in recent years, I had the chance to eat charcoal baked kuih bangkit again, made by distant relatives, and they are soooo much better than oven baked. The base of the charcoal baked ones were brown and the cookie was so flavorful and fragrant.

Random Sunday :- Jintan Manis - Is it Fennel or Aniseed???

Now.... when I was blogging about my confinement (here and here), fennel seeds were used in some recipes because fennel is a galactagogue (aids in lactating). I was asked, whether it is jintan manis or jintan kasar in the Malay Language. Or is the jintan manis not fennel or it's aniseed. So many being confused. I myself, although am convinced that fennel is jintan manis, but am no sure what are those on my spice rack.

Ok, to solve the mystery, I planted some Jintan Manis that I took off my spice rack. Why did I plant it?
Simply because Aniseed and Fennel flowers differently. The way you can really find out is to look at the flowers and leaves. See it with out very own eyes.

Tomago Boro Experiment Turned Catty

I tried to recreate the yummy sweeeeeeeet biscuit balls from Japan. How did I do it, by guessing what was in it and the proportions.

Ingredient labels always start with the ingredient used to most to the least, I guessed from there. I can’t read Jap, but because I had been scouring E-pan for bread recipes and some words I could easly recognize after using the translator numerous times. Words like chicken egg, is easily recognizable and some words actually resemble Chinese language, so, it’s not that hard.

This experiment with 1 egg yielded quite sum, about 2 cups of biscuits

80gm potato starch
60gm sugar
1 large egg
30gm cake flour
1 drop vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven at 150C/170C.
2. Combine starch, flour and baking powder. Sift together, set aside.
3. Beat egg and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes until it takes on the colour of mayonnaise.
4. Put in vanilla extract. Fold.
5. Fold in the sifted flours.
6. Pipe small balls(slightly bigger than chocolate chips), onto baking tray.
7. Bake for 15 mins until golden. (the larger the balls, the longer it’ll take)
8. Keep in air tight containers.

Did they taste like tomago boro?
Nah, they tasted like egg biscuits, or cat’s tongues, but ultra crunchy. The amount was enough for 2 large trays of small buttons and 1 tray of mini cats tongues, and these mini cats tongues were baked for 18 mins, slightly longer as they were bigger.

Hahaha, I didn’t find the recipe for tomago boro, but an ultra crunchy cat’s tongues.
Tomago boro taste much sweeter, almost like eating meringue, but a meringue ball with more flour. Maybe I should precook the flour.. maybe. I’ll try again, like I always do, the cat never dies in me. I just got to try again, and my kids adore these, so they’ll be snapped up in no time.

Red Velvet Cake Experiment with Roselle

I have always wished to make a Red Velvet Cake, but very very hesitant due to the amount of red colouring used.

So, I experimented with Roselle, a natural source of red pigment.
I boiled 20 pieces of roselle's calyces with water, reduced the infusion and got this, a super concentrated reddish paste.

The pot was still left with lots of pigments and so I rinsed the pot with
1. Evaporated milk (left)
2. Yogurt. (right)
This is to melt the dried pigments on the walls of the pot, it's still a lot of colour, so don't waste it.

No, I didn't rinse the same pot twice. But I did it twice, cos the first cake became a dark grey cake. I was laughing at the cake when I saw it out from the oven.

If you noticed, the left pic that has the excess pigment melted in evaporated milk, more bluish than the one on the right, which was yogurt. Anthocyanin, the pigment present in Roselle, reacts and changes colour according to Ph. If it is exposed to alkaline conditions, it turns blue, and in acid, red. Just like the Ph indicator back in your chemistry classes. Milk is a weak acid (pH 6.4-6.8) and yogurt is more acidic(pH 4-5). Same goes for blueberries, if you add lemon juice to your blueberry ice cream, be sure to get magenta coloured ice cream, the more lemon juice you add, the "reddish" it becomes but if no lemon juice is used, it stays blue blue blue. Same goes for red cabbage.

Ok, stop talking about anthocyanins. But look at my results, adapted from Tartelette's 1st cake

First cake,

The surface looked dark grey and the cake is brownish grey. But taste wise, fabulous!! My brother in law finished up the cake and inititated to learn from me. I laughed at it, cos it was a failed experiment.
I thought, maybe the batter wasn't acidic enough for it to stay red, because initially I thought the roselles are pretty sour, so with the acid in it, should be enough to react with the baking soda used, so I didn't bother to use buttermilk/yogurt. The batter actually turned blue before the cocoa powder was added in, which was why I knew it's not acidic enough. Not even the vinegar could help me. I was hoping for a bluish cake, but hahaha, a grey cake came out.

The 2nd cake,

I used yogurt this time for the batter to be acidic, and the result was disastrous. It looked redder than the 1st cake, but roselle is just not strong enough to overcome the cocoa powder. It was very magenta-ish before the cocoa powder was added in, but once the brown powder went it...... it no longer stayed pretty.
And taste wise, it was really horrible. It sticks.. not to the finger, but the palate. Found it hard to swallow. I guess with roselle concentrate, yogurt and vinegar, it became too acidic and maybe that's why it is so dry and crumbly and sticky in the mouth. Threw the whole cake away, it was inedible.

I guess my quest for a roselle coloured Red Velvet Cake shall end here. The natural pigment is just no contender with the little bit of cocoa powder. It just can't overcome it. I've tried baking with Roselles before and the colour came out nice and pretty, but it just don't work together with cocoa powder. I might just come up with a magenta coloured cake... but not Red Velvet Cake.

BTW, please don't suggest beetroot to me. I'm keeping red velvet cake away from me forever.

Comparison of Commercial Crop and Organic Soybeans

I wonder, if there is a difference between these two. So I bought some and did some simple testing

I soaked the same amount in weight for these beans and made soy milk the next morning. Gave it some simple taste test with my 4 senses, touch, vision, smell, taste and of course I can't hear soy beans.

THIS IS JUST MY PERSONAL OPINION.

YOU MAY THINK OTHERWISE

Soy crops from different farms from different countries differ,
 so this is not a generalization,
but just a comparison with the 2 types of beans that I have

Visually, commercial ones are smaller and organic one are bigger. The rest of the differences are in the table below.

So, in the end, will I use commercial crop soy or organic?


A mixture maybe.... Or maybe there's another organic soy out there that fares better than this from Mongolia.
I do believe there is another better organic soy bean out there, just that I can't get it, yet. 

Oh ya, this organic bean right, is the cheapest on Jusco's shelves. Hehehehe. Maybe I should just get the more expensive ones.

And commercial crops, some are imported from China, and I do not know how they taste like, since I've never bought some and did some simple testing on them.

Chinese White Honeycomb Cake -Version 4 Bak Tong Goh- 36 hours

Almost similar to Aunty Yochana’s version, but minus 42 hours and the rice fermentation stage. The wine yeast is added directly into the rice flour, which was the kuih starter dough (step 2) in Yochana’s version
Still, this will take you 36 hours to complete. Even though it looks like 3 days, but it started late at night on day one and ended early on day 3, altogether is 36 hours, less than 48. And remember if ever something suddenly came up that makes you unable to do the next stage or steam it on time, just pop it into the fridge for not more than 3 days. But, one or 2 hours delay won’t make much of a difference, should you need the one or 2 hours extra.

It was the picture that seduced me to try this recipe. That was my ultimate result, and I achieved that in Aunty Yochana’s Version. And not many have tried this recipe, not even those in Chinese. I tried googling it based on the recipe, and I only found one on page 10 of google result . What more about this recipe in English…. None.. Well, as earlier said in the 1st version, I never saw any English Pak Thong Gou doing it with wheat starch, of course there will be none with this long version as well.

One weird thing about this recipe is the egg white. What is the function of the egg white? I don’t know. Anyway, when it was put into the hot sugar syrup, it’ll cook and it will be sieved away later. So, why add that? The answer might be that the egg white protein, albumin, is used here as a fining agent in wine making. After reading a few sites . about wine fining, it seems that it’s raw egg whites that is used and not cooked egg whites, so why is this added in as cooked egg white?

Actually the original recipe called for yeast, but yeast to ferment for 18 hours minimum at tropical room temperature? Gosh, I don’t want to make express rice vinegar. The recipe was in Chinese and the original source is unknown, they copy and paste it everywhere on the internet, so the “yeast” they mention, I’m not sure whether it’s the Chinese yeast or western baking yeast. If they call for ½ tsp of baking yeast to ferment that long.. I can still “maybe” accept it, but 2 tsp??? A bit too much, seriously.Maybe in cold China, it can really take that long, but not here. I can make the cake in only 2 hours if I use 2 tsp, just like any of those express versions. So, I'll use Chinese wine yeast. Nevermind, I’m the guinea pig here.

Day 1 :11pm
(A) Starter

Ingredients:
55gm rice flour
1/2 tsp sugar
125ml boiling water (measure after boiling)
2 tsp Chinese sweet wine yeast biscuit (crushed into powder), or ½ tsp yeast (In tropical warm weather, if you follow the original amount, you will have rice vinegar by the end of it)
Method:
Put rice flour and sugar into a bowl. Pour half the boiling water into rice flour and stir. Pour the balance in and stir. Leave to cool down. Put in crushed wine biscuit and stir. Put flour mixture into a non air tight container. Leave to ferment for 24 hours in a warm place, away from direct sunlight. Open container the next morning to let it breathe for a few seconds and cover again. Do this again later in the afternoon.

Day 2: 11am
(B) Rice flour mixture

Ingredients:
175gm rice flour
50gm wheat starch
250ml water
Method:
Mix rice flour and wheat starch with water. Let the mixture sit for a few hours (2-3). The rice flour will settle to the bottom and water will be on top. While preparing the syrup below, carefully pour away the water.

Day 2: 2pm
(C) Sugar syrup

Ingredients:
180gm sugar (original proportion is 300gm)
250ml water
1 Tbsp egg white
Method:
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Turn off the heat. Put in egg white and stir. Sieve syrup and pour into (B).
Cover and leave until 11pm.

Day 2: 11pm
Final rice batter
Method: Mix (A) into (C). Sieve mixture and cover. Let it proof for another 12 hours.

Day 3: 11am
Steaming

Ingredient:
1 tsp oil
Method:
Prepare your steamer .Put in water and bring to a boil.
Put 1 tsp oil into batter. Mix well.
Grease one 12 inch round pan.
Place greased pan onto steamer rack.
Pour rice batter into greased pan.
Cover your steamer and steam on high heat for 20 minutes.

Results:
Good.
But not as good as Aunty Yochana’s. Double decker honeycombs too. Due to the lesser water content than Aunty Yochana’s, this yields a slightly firmer cake. The higher starch content also made this chewier. But less crunchy than Aunty Yochana’s. Aunty Yochana’s version is really the best, and the most time consuming. Try this recipe if you want to do it using only 36 hours compared to Yochana’s 78 hours.
Slightly inferior only. If Aunty Yochana’s version is very good, this is good. Rice flour and yeast version to me is .. I don’t want to rate it.

I’m not sure whether it’s due to wheat starch that pak thong koh can get double decker results , as I did it here as well (although not as equal as those that I got with aunty yochana’s version, it’s thicker at the bottom this time), just like the pic in Haochi123. But mine was a bit wavy on top after being steamed, not as flat. Maybe I was using less sugar. Or maybe I was using high heat to steam rather than medium high heat. Sometimes, sugar do play a role, but I really can’t stand the amount of sugar used in the original recipe. Try out the original amount if you like things sweet, and please let me know.

And oh ya.. I’m going to try out the 1st version again. I won’t cook it this time, and if I still get double decker honeycombs, then I confirm it’s the starch, but if it’s not, I guess it’s due to the wine yeast.

Mango Cotton Cheesecake with Mango Crown

Looked pretty from the top?

Please don't look at the sides. Hedious!!! Absolutely hedious!! Cos I did this in a regular pan and forgot to grease the sides. I tried to release the sides with a knife when it was fresh out from the oven to avoid cracking whilst cooling and I mutilated the cake's side.

This is not a first time baking with mangoes. My 2nd infact. My 1st experience was a birthday cake for Mike, a Baked Mango Cheesecake. He asked me to discard the whole cake. That's how bad it was.
Reason: The whole cake tasted and smelt green, green like grass. The colour was a dirty yellow, like clay in yellow ochre.
Why did this happen?
Because I used Chok Anan mangoes to do it.
Sure or not it's the mangoes fault??? Sure la.... Even the decorative top turned dirty yellow in just 3 hours.
The blog where I got this recipe from said her cake was ok, but she could not recall the type of mango she used, even when I sent her pictures. But she said, it was a Thai mango.

I've got a friend who tried my Orange Yogurt Muffin Cake, and she ran out of plain yogurt and used her cup of mango yogurt instead. She told me the cake turned into a dirty looking cake with a grassy smell. See... It's not me blaming it all on the mango. Chok Anans are one of the most common mangoes for sale here. And it's one of the cheapest too, so I'm not surprised that manufacturers will use this mango for their "real fruit yogurt".

So, it seemed that it's the type of mango used that will affect the cake, not any mango can be used for baking. So which type? I had to experiment.

This time, I used Golden Lily mango, another common Thai mango. And the result was better.

Oh why did I do a cotton cheesecake to try out the mango??
Cotton cheesecakes are easier to eat and finish off compared to regular creamy cheesecakes and the main reason is that it uses less cream cheese :)
I just want to know the outcome of baking with Golden Lily mango.

Mango Cotton Cheesecake

125gm cream cheese, room temperature
3 egg yolks
30gm flour
20gm corn starch
125ml mango puree

3 egg whites
70gm sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 150/160C. Line the base of a 7 or 8 inch round pan, grease the sides
2. With a whisk or mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.
3. Add in egg yolk one by one, beating smooth after each addition.
4. Mix in both flours until smooth.
5. Combine mango puree until everything is smooth. Set aside.
6. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
7. Add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
8. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into cheese mixture.
9. Pour cheese mixture into remaining egg whites and fold until well combined.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan. Put pan into another slightly bigger pan filled halfway with boiling water.
11. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool cake thoroughly before decorating with mango slices. Chill in fridge until time of use.

Mango Crown Topping
Mango slices
1 Tbsp Instant jelly powder
100ml water
1 Tbsp sugar

1. Arrange mango slices on cooled cake. Put cake in freezer while you do the jelly glaze.
2. Mix instant jelly powder, sugar and water in a saucepan.
3. On medium heat, bring to a boil and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. No need to cool down.
4. Remove cake from freezer and brush glaze onto mango slices. The jelly will harden upon contact with cold mango.

Although not very,very good, but better. The decorative top lasted 18 hours before turning brown and the interior of the cake was orangy brownish, but definately not dirty looking. Taste wise, ok, but it doesn't taste exceptionally mangoey on its own. The mango topping is a must. 

I wonder what sort of mango will give bakes a lovely mango flavour. Maybe Thai mangoes don't work, because they have a faint fragrance, as I read somewhere on the internet that mango flavour and fragrance diminishes upon baking or cooking, and only certain mangoes are suitable, but what sort of mango??? There are hundreds of mango varieties in the world. Will Indian mangoes work? Alphonso or Wira? They certainly taste and smell much  much stronger than Thai mangoes. I can't get Philipines Mango here... so I don't know about them.

Anyone that had success baking with mangoes, please share with me your experience. I am desperate to know. I hope to don't need to buy every mango in the market and test each one out.

Apam Beras Eno , Fatt Koh???? 果子盐米发糕

So, whatcha gonna do with those leftover starter(fermented rice) and kuih starter dough from Aunty Yochana’s Pak Thong Koh? Make them into apam beras eno.

Do you believe that I only knew these were also called Fatt Koh after I made them. My MIL took a bite and said, eh this is Fatt Koh la. I scratched my head, but these were made with rice flour .. are these Fatt Koh? She said, yup, some Fatt Kohs are made with rice flour. To me, fatt kohs are made with wheat flour, not rice flour.. I’m still scratching my head now.

Fatt Kohs are something that is not common at my home. Actually never found at home at all. I only ate this once when I was a kid at my maternal uncle’s house. They bought lots of it for my maternal grandpa’s funeral. They looked really lovely in pastel pink and yellow. One bite and I wanted to puke it out, so yucky and dry. I thought all fatt kohs are like that. So it never came to mind that the wonderful soft rice cakes that I always buy from Malay kuih hawkers are in actual fact, fatt koh.

Apam Beras Eno is very popular among our Malay friends. During my uni days, there was this pakcik(uncle in Malay) that sells lovely apam beras at the night market in Serdang. I love it with lots of shredded coconut. The smile effect was not emphasized by the Malays, only the Chinese likes it to smile smile smile. Actually I like this roundly bald, like those sold by the pakcik, as long as it is moist, soft and fluffy.

I found this site to have the type of apam I’m looking for.
Although the original recipe called for only fermented rice, I put in the kuih starter dough as well, which consist of rice flour and some starter, already fermented. Why waste it right?
But priority will be the fermented rice. If you have 80gm leftover, then bulk up with 20gm of kuih starter dough. I f you have only 60gm of fermented rice left, then bulk up with 40gm of the kuih starter dough. If you did not make Aunty Yochana’s Pak Thong Koh, but want to try only this, follow the instructions in my last Pak Thong Koh recipe to make the fermented rice.

I only did half the portion, because I only have 125gm of both starters left. And I did get quite a lot..

So, here goes.

Ingredients
100gm of fermented rice +kuih starter dough (all leftovers from making Pak Tong Gou)
125gm rice flour
50gm sugar (this amount is just nice, just sweet enough for it not to be bland)
175gm water
1/2 tsp plain Eno (blue packing)
Some food colouring (the colour intensifies with the steaming, so make it few shades lighter than what u hope it to be, mine became too pink)

Method:
1. Blitz everything together except the Eno and food colouring in the blender.
2. Pour into a bowl (should be less than 40% full, so make sure the bowl is big) and let it ferment for 3-4 hours.
3. Grease the steaming cups with some oil.
4. Prepare your steamer, put in water and let it come to a boil.
5. While waiting, mix Eno into batter and stir (it’ll look like a chiffon cake batter now). Divide them into 2 or 3 bowls and add preferred food colouring.
6. Pour batter into greased cups until 95% full (1 or 2 mm from the rim) and steam on high heat for 10 minutes.
7. Let the cakes cool down and remove from cups. Serve with some fresh shredded coconut.


Reviews from some tasters:
1. Bouncy, QQ
2. Doesn’t stick to the teeth
3. Yummy
4. Very soft and fluffy


What I find from using different molds
1. Greased aluminium mini tart tins – very soft and fluffy, actually the fluffiest, but, almost no smiles.

2. Lined aluminium mini tart tins – the apams smiled and are very soft and fluffy

3. Silicon mould- Bundt shape- Smiled, soft and fluffy but as good as those in aluminium tart tins.

4. Silicon mould-Heart shaped based with a greater height than width- smiled the widest and had the densest texture, still soft and fluffy, but is the densest of all.

After I did this, I did some reading on the net, and found that indeed to have nice smiles, u need to steam the cakes in a cup that has greater height than width. Truly that happened to my heart shaped silicon moulds. So, up to you.. what do u want? Bald or smiling? Actually I don’t really care, I just want it to be soft and fluffy.

This recipe is a real keeper. I will use this recipe the next time I crave for some good apam beras.

Chinese White Honeycomb Cake - Pak Thong Koh Version 3, Yochana's/Y3K

Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Seeee the picture. What do you see? I’ve got double decker honeycombs!!!!!!!

I was so so happy when I cut through the kuih.
Oh please be happy for me.



I didn’t expect this recipe to yield me my dream result, double decker honeycombs as seen from this pic.

I’ve never seen any blogger having double decker honeycombs with any recipe, or is there any out there, let me know. I wonder if it’s due to the yeast or me chilling the batter during the last stage of fermentation, or due to me using wheat starch instead of tapioca starch. I don’t know, I just don’t but I’m darn happy!!!!! Wooohooo!!!!

This recipe is so tasty!!! Really!! It’s bouncy, crunchy, doesn’t stick to teeth at all, almost like a fishball. You get what I mean? But not those super super bouncy fishball ah, regular real fish fishballs. It doesn’t taste grainy like my 2nd version. The sweetness is just nice. Slightly sweeter than my 1st version, but definitely not too sweet. It smells sweet, yeastily sweet, not a tinge of sourness detected.

One thing about this though, I find this to be too thick if steamed on a 10 inch round pan as said in the original recipe. I used a 11 inch round pan and I got a 2 inch high cake (at the center). You can split the batter into two 8 or 9 inch pans to get a thinner cake.

Thank you so much Aunty Yochana for sharing this recipe. Indeed very very good. But needs advanced time planning to do this. But don’t worry, you can use the fridge to manipulate your time, just like I did

See them again........ and I shall talk about the recipe

Starter dough (Tuesday Day 1 : time: 12pm)
100gm cooled, cooked rice
½ Tbsp Chinese Wine Yeast ( 甜酒饼，Ragi, sweet type)
1 tsp sugar
½ Tbsp water
Mix everything together, keep in a covered container (not air tight, best is use those disposable Microwave safe containers that comes with your take-away sweet desserts).
Leave it somewhere dark (Aunty Yochana use the cupboard) to ferment for 48 hours. (I open it once every 12 hours to let it have some fresh air)
After 48 hours, weight out 60gms (balance keep in fridge for the next recipe) and see instructions below.

Kuih Starter dough (Thursday Day 3: Time 12pm)
60gm starter dough
100gm rice flour
Some plain water (Now, only if it’s too dry. Add some just to moisten)

Mix everything together in another container. Leave to ferment for 16-18 hours
Weigh out 80gm of this. (keep balance in fridge for the next recipe)

Friday Day 4 : Time 10am
Ingredients (A):
220 gm. pure rice flour (Cap Teratai, Cap Gajah are blended rice flours, and if you choose to use these 2 brands, omit the starch below and subsitute the amount with more blended rice flour)
30 gm. tapioca starch (I used wheat starch)
280 gm. water

Ingredients (B):
200 gm. castor sugar
400 ml. water
3 blades of pandan leaves (tied into a knot)

Ingredients (C):
80 gm. of the fermented kuih starter dough

Method:
(1) Combine ingredients (A) together in a big mixing bowl. Set aside.
(2) Bring ingredients (B) to a boil, then discard pandan leaves. Pour half portion into no. (1) and mix well. Cool the remaining half portion for about 2 mins. before pouring into the rice flour mixture in the mixing bowl. Mix well, leave mixture to cool.
(3) Add the 80 gm. of fermented kuih starter dough and sieve it. Let it ferment again for about 12 - 14 hours.

Due to sudden thought of going to KL, I shoved the fermenting batter into the fridge after 4 hours to temporary stop the fermentation. But the KL plan was canceled and I took the batter out from the fridge at 8pm to ferment until 2am. Then I put it back into the fridge. Took it out at 12pm the next day to let it come to room temp. Steamed at 2pm. (Total hours at room temp:12 hours)



Saturday, Day 5: 2pm

Ingredients (D):
1/4 tsp. Alkaline water/ lye water or air abu (or dissolve ¼ tsp baking soda in 1 tsp water, and use ¼ tsp of that solution)
1 tsp. cooking oil

(1) Add oil into the fermented mixture (no.3). Add alkaline water and mix well before pouring into a greased 10" round steaming tray. Steam for about 15 - 20 mins over medium heat. Test with a skewer before removing from the steamer.
(2) You can glaze the pak thong koh with some oil whilst still hot and cool well before cutting kuih into pieces. (it's oily enough from that 1 tsp oil added before steaming) BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR IT TO BE TOTALLY COOL TO TOUCH BEFORE CUTTING, if not the surface will be sticky and kuih will be soft and not crunchy.

I can't wait for it to cool down, so when it's not too hot, I put the whole thing into the freezer for about 10 minutes and it was cool enough to be cut by then.
And see those pretty honeycombs again... see seee....

I suggest you use this timetable, or adjust your own time
Day 1 : 11pm, ferment rice
Day 3: 11pm, make kuih starter dough
Day 4: 1-3pm, prepare final batter
Day 4 :11pm, put batter into the fridge to chill
Day 5: take batter out from fridge 2-3 hours in advance before steaming time(whenever you wish :)

OR

if you are an early riser that needs to work....

Day 1 :7am start rice fermentation (48 hrs)
Day 3: 7am start kuih starter dough fermentation(16 hrs)
Day 3 :7pm start prepare the final batter, needs time to cool down after boiling.
Day 3: 11pm put kuih starter dough into the final batter
Day 4: Wake up and put the whole batter into fridge and chill until you come back from work to steam. (overall calculate 12 hours in room temperature for final batter)

A gist of the fermentation time
1. Starter dough(Rice fermentation) : 48 hours
2. Kuih Starter dough : 16-18 hours
3. Final batter: 12-14 hours
No matter that time you do it, as long as it stays in room temperature for this period , it'll be fine.
Shove it into the fridge anywhere anytime if you are not free or the hours are awkward for you.


Oh yes, one more thing if you want to know what brand of rice flour I’m using all along, I used Erawan brand, imported from Thailand. It has a decorative elephant as its logo. Becareful that there is another rice flour, Cap Gajah., also with an elephant logo, but it’s a plain elephant. So be careful of which brand you’re buying. Cap Gajah is a blended rice flour, means it’s not pure rice flour and it contains added starch as said on it’s packaging. The difference in price? 10sen only. I bought Erawan at RM3.00 and Cap Gajah sells at RM2.90. Cap Teratai is also a blended rice flour.

And see my honeycombs again.......

Now, before you go, remember there are leftover fermented rice and kuih starter dough? What to do with them???? I’ll show you in my next post.

One more... one more pic :) The last one, I promise.

You may go now :)

Update : 6/6/2012:

I made more of this cake again, twice and it wasn't as crunchy as before, nor was it as crunchy as Version 4.

Thinking back, version 3 and 4 were made using the same pack of rice flour that was almost expiring. The Indian grocery store nearby sold my husband a pack of rice flour with only 2 more months to expiry. Rice flours have a long shelf life, due to it's lack of gluten. So, this pack of almost expiring rice flour is definitely more than 2 years old.

Like how noodle makers will prefer using old rice (my friend who owned a noodle factory told me this), so that it will give a less sticky texture, so does this cake. It needs an old old pack of rice flour to give it that crunch. New rice flours will be more sticky and soft.

Think of your rice. If the pack of rice bought is a new harvest, or freshly opened pack... it surely does taste softer, stickier, has less water absorbency qualities than old rice right?

I think I need to stock up my rice flour and keep it for a year before I make another attempt. LOL

Chinese White Honeycomb Cake -Version 2 Rose's

Looks pretty?
High and tall and porous honeycombs?

Yeah, it looks better then my previous attempt, looks better as in, it looked the way it should look. But I don't like this. Please read all below to find out why.

This is Rose's recipe

280g rice flour
280g sugar
600ml water
3 pandan leaves, knotted
1 tsp dried yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1. Add 300ml water to the rice flour and mix well.
2. Boil sugar with 300ml water, salt and pandan leaves. When boiling, pour syrup into rice flour mixture. Stir well and strain mixture. Leave aside to cool.
3. Dissolve 1 tsp yeast in 2 tbsp lukewarm water and add to cooled rice mixture. Stir well, cover and leave to leaven for 11/2 to 2 hours till small tiny bubbles appear.
4. Grease and preheat a 30 cm round tray in steamer.
5. Add 1/2 tbsp oil to leavened mixture, stir well and pour into heated tray. Steam for 20 minutes.

Why did I choose this recipe as my 2nd atempt. It is one version that does not use any additional starch and it uses the express fermentation process, 2 hours. It is similiar to a few other recipes that many some suggested me to try, and they all use yeast and only rice flour, similar preparation process, so the results should be the same. Actually I've already book marked all the recipes I wanted to experiment with before I told you guys I wanted to do 4 versions.

So, with the two express versions that I did, with and without starch, which did I prefer?

The one with additional starch.

This version may look good, but taste wise, I don't really like it, cos it tasted a bit grainy. Don't tell me it's due to my rice flour. I used the same brand as Rose used. If you have tried eating Lai Fun that is traditional, made with just rice .. you'll understand what I mean. Traditional Lai Fun doesn't taste smooth on the palate, and it is brittle and grainy. Same goes for this version of pak thong gou.

But non traditional Lai Fun, like those you eat with Assam Laksa or Penang Laksa, is more pliable, bouncy, a lot more smoother, all due to the presence of additional starch.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain. I'm not trying to put down any versions, but this is just my personal opinion.

This version is just not for me. Actually I made this recipe twice, and I felt the same way twice. The white ones are my 2nd attempt with the 2nd version , and the one below is my 1st attempt with the 2nd version.

This one, my 1st attempt with Rose's recipe, was done with 2 types of sugars, white and palm, and later marbled into one cake. The marble effect wasn't obvious.

The honeycomb effect here is better than my 1st version but not as good as the 2nd attempt with Rose version above. The same recipe, but why different. Simply due to me cooking the mixture slightly to thicken it.

Me being the smartypants, with experience from the 1st version, thought eh, why this batter is so liquidy??? So I cooked it for a while to thicken it, but not as thick as before. And the outcome, short honeycombs. Then I learnt something, the reason for my termite mound interior with my 1st version is due to me cooking the batter thick!!!!

And now from then on, if I want to make a good express Bak Thong Goh, I'll use the 1st version recipe, but not to cook it. Then I'll have a nice bouncy, non grainy, high honeycombs Pak Tong Ko.

My next try out version : Aunty Yochana's 3-4 day version