Monday August 24, 2009

Simple delightful kuih

By TAN KARR WEI

karrwei@thestar.com.my

FOOD with pandan in it is always very enticing because of the lovely fragrance.

When I first tried the Kuih Bakar at a friend’s house, I immediately took a liking to it, not only because of the pandan flavour but also the golden brown crust sprinkled with sesame seeds.

I found out that this kuih is not difficult to make, so this sweet delicacy would be a nice sweetmeat for the breaking of fast.

However, because my first — and likely my last — attempt at making it resulted in a barely edible end product that fell sorely short of expectations, I prefer to share the Kuih Bakar recipe by food blogger Lily Ng, whom I have always known as Aunty Lily.

As a child, I thought that items like Roti Jala could only be bought from the stalls until I saw her making them from scratch in my grandmother’s kitchen.

Thanks to the advent of the Internet, she now shares her recipes at Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (lilyng2000.blogspot.com).

According to Aunty Lily, Kuih Bakar is also known as Kuih Kemboja and eating it is like eating kaya in a slice, but not as rich.

Ingredients

3 large eggs
400ml (1can) coconut cream
50ml water
½ tsp pandan paste
4 oz all-purpose flour
4 oz fine granulated sugar
½ tsp salt
Sesame seeds

Method

It should be baked in a bronze flower-shaped mould but a six-inch cast-iron skillet or pan would work as well. Preheat oven to 177 °C (350 °F) and put in pan for heating.

— Beat eggs and sugar till sugar dissolves but mixture is not fluffy.

— Mix pandan paste and water with coconut cream.

— Add flour and coconut cream mixture alternately to the egg and sugar mixture.

— Microwave batter until it thickens slightly.

— Brush heated pan with a little oil and pour in batter.

— Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown.

— Cool before serving.