Baked Binka Ubi or Baked Tapioca Cake

Been MIA for a very, very long time! Although I have been baking and cooking, posting what I had been doing definitely isn't what I can keep up with. Hmmm.... it all boils down to this problem I have - my lazy bone's been acting up!
Okie, enough of rambling!

I love nonya kueh, the real kind with all the calories in it! I dislike eating nonya kueh that are lacking in really good ingredients! Although I am quite the health nut, I indulge in really good nonya kueh.
It's hard to find really good nonya kueh nowadays. The only way I solve this problem is to make them myself!

Ingredients:

445g coarsely grated tapioca ( I grated them myself as I wanted it to be coarse so that you can get some bite!)

130g sugar
3 eggs
60g tapioca flour
270g thick coconut milk
30g salted butter, melted and cool slightly
pinch of salt
50g fresh grated coconut (do not use the ones already squeezed for its milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


1. Preheat oven to 175 deg C.

2. Grease and line a 18-cm round tin with greaseproof paper.

3. Combine eggs and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Do not whisk the eggs.

4. Add coconut milk, butter, vanilla extract, tapioca flour, grated coconut and salt.

5. Pour into tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

I baked mine in patty tins as they baked faster.

Steamed Kueh Lapis

As a child I used to enjoy eating this kueh by peeling it layer by layer and saving the red part which is the top layer to the last. I wonder how many of us did that as a child.
Today my grandsons would do it the same by eating it layer by layer! Hmm.. Guess the eating style of this kueh never changes!
My mum called it "kow chang kueh" which means nine-layered cake. True to its name, there are nine layers to this kueh.

Ingredients:

540ml coconut milk from 2 grated coconuts
210g sugar
5 to 6 pandan leaves, knotted

180g tapioca flour
80g plain flour
pinch of salt
colouring

1. Add about 350ml water to the grated coconuts to extract 540ml coconut milk.

2. Gently heat coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves till sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat to cool.

3. Mix tapioca flour and plain flour in a bowl and add coconut milk, a little at a time to mix with the flour before adding the rest. Strain mixture to remove lumps.

4. Divide mixture into 9 equal portions and add a drop of colouring to the mixture.
The colours in sequence from the bottom are: plain, pink, yellow, green, orange, plain, brown, blue and red.

5. Prepare steamer and grease and line the bottom of 7-inch or 18-cm round baking tin.

6. Heat up the baking tin and pour the plain layer and steam for 7 minutes. Repeat steaming process for the 8 layers. Steam for 10 minutes after the last layer.

7. Cool completely before cutting with a well-greased knife.

I used the colouring sparingly as I am not fond of using them.

I also omitted the brown colour and used plain for the layer before the red.

Kueh Pulut Kaya

It has been many, many years since I made kueh pulut kaya. I used to take orders for this. Ever since I stopped my home cake business about 15 years ago, I hardly bake those cakes, mooncakes or even  kueh-kueh that my customers used to order. I reached a point where I could no longer go on. It was a one-man show for 25 years juggling between a regular-salaried job, baking as a sideline and family managing. Looking back, I never regretted that journey. Anyway, it was on a whim that I decided to make this kueh recently which is a favourite of my hubby!

Ingredients:
(For a 20 x 15-cm tray)
For the glutinous rice layer:

270g glutinous rice, washed and soaked in water for 6 hours
240m1 thin coconut milk
pinch of salt
2 to 3 pandan leaves, cut into 5-cm lengths

1. Prepare steamer and bring water to a boil.

2. Drain the water from the rice and mix in coconut milk, salt and pandan leaves.

3. Pour rice into tray, lined with aluminium foil or greased. If you have the clitorea flower colouring, just sprinkle a few drops.

4. Steam rice for 15 minutes, then remove the pandan leaves and compress the layer of rice and level it.


For the kaya topping:

2 large eggs
75g sugar
30g cornflour
1 tablespoon plain flour
315ml thick coconut milk
2 to 3 tablespoons pandan juice from blending of 30 pandan leaves with 200ml water
pinch of salt


1. Stir eggs and sugar. Do not beat thhe eggs as you don't want to aerate it and with less air, the surface will be smoother.

2. Mix the flour with a little coconut milk into a watery paste and then add in the egg mixture and the rest of the ingredients.

3.Strain the mixture to remove lumps.

4. Place mixture in a saucepan and slow cook over a low fire, stirring the mixture with a whisk, taking care to "sweep" the bottom of the pan to prevent a layer from thickening. Once the mixture is almost thickening, remove from heat and pour mixture over the rice.

5. Place a piece of aluminium foil over the tin and wrap it around to prevent water from collecting on the top of the kaya. Steam at medium to low heat for 40 to 50 minutes. If steam at high heat, ridges will be form on the kaya. Let kueh cool before cutting.

Ondeh Ondeh

This version of ondeh ondeh is minus the sweet potato as I had missed out buying it this morning at the market.

Ingredients:

150ml water
10 pandan leaves, cut into pieces

200g glutinous rice flour
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
1/4 tespoon salt

70g gula melaka, cut up to pieces (filling)

100g grated coconut, without skin
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 pandan leaves

Method:

1. Mix grated coconut and salt and steam it with cut pandan leaves for 10 minutes. Set aside.

2. Blend pandan leaves and water. Use a muslin cloth and squeeze out pandan juice.(the darker, the better to have a natural green colouring)

3. Mix flour, salt and a little pandan juice at a time to get a pliable dough. Take 40g dough(starter dough) and flatten it. Put into boiling water to cook it. Once it floats, remove and let it cool slightly.

4. Mix starter dough with the rest of the dough and knead well. Dust with a little glutinous flour if dough is sticky.

5. Pinch a small portion of dough, roll into a ball and make a well to put in filling. Seal well to prevent leakage of filling and set aside.

6. Boil a pot of water with some pandan leaves. Remove leaves. Drop the balls of dough with filling into boiling water to cook them. Remove and coat with grated coconut.