A must try Steamed Muffins / Huat Kueh recipe! An amazing blend of flavours: pandan, palm sugar and coconut in these soft and fluffy steamed rice cakes.
To start, first cook the coconut filling so have ready all the ingredients needed.
Begin by preparing palm sugar syrup. Place palm sugar and knotted pandan/screw pine leaves in a pot of water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Allow to simmer till palm sugar has dissolved.
When done, remove knotted pandan/screw pine leaves from the palm sugar syrup.
Then using a strainer, filter the palm sugar syrup into a clean wok or saucepan.
Then stir in sugar.
Next, add in the grated coconut.
Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent coconut filling from being burnt and to ensure the grated coconut is well mixed.
Then mix in a little flour solution.
Remove the coconut filling from heat and set aside to cool before using.
Fermented rice ( Starter Dough ):
Next prepare to make fermented rice. Have ready the ingredients needed.
Crush the sweet wine yeast biscuit.
Mix the crushed sweet wine yeast, sugar and water into the cooked rice.
Cover and set aside at room temperature but away from direct heat) for 48 hours.
And we're done! You can start to use the fermented rice after 48 hours. We are now ready to make the cake batter.
Steamed Cake batter:
Have ready all ingredients needed to make the cake batter.
First blend pandan/screw pines leaves with some water.
Using a strainer, strain to get the green pandan juice.
Top up pandan juice with water till 600 ml.
Place fermented rice and half of the pandan juice into a blender.
Blend till fine.
Then combine all the dry ingredients for cake batter except eno in a large bowl.
Add in the blended fermented rice.
Next, add in balance of the pandan juice and stir to mix well.
Strain the flour mixture.
Cover and leave aside at room temperature for another 11 hours. And we are done with the cake batter!
Steam Huat Kueh:
To steam the Huat Kueh, first prepare steamer by boiling some water over high heat.
Line cups with cupcake liners.
Add ENO salt into cake batter, stir well and leave aside for 5 minutes.
Using an ice-cream scoop, pour 1 tablespoon cake batter into lined cups.
Then place 1 tablespoon coconut filling in the centre of each cup.
Top to cover each cup till almost full with cake batter. And we're ready to steam the Huat Kueh!
Place the filled cups in the prepared steamer.
Cover and steam over HIGH heat for 15 minutes.
And we're done! This cake must be steam over HIGH heat in order to get the crack (smiling) effect.
Leave the Huat Kueh to cool for 5 minutes before removing from cups.
Then remove from cups and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
These Huat Kueh tastes so good with the soft and chewy texture, sweet winery aroma and aromatic palm sugar coconut filling. They are best served hot or warm as a snack. So Enjoy!
To make this steamed rice cake, you may need to plan a few days ahead because the starter dough needs a few days to ferment. You can start to use the fermented rice ( starter dough ) after 48 hours. However, if not needed yet, you can store in refrigerator to be used later. The starter dough should smell like wine and should not be mouldy. This method of making huat kueh (fermented rice cakes) do not need to add yeast or baking powder to make them rise and crack (or smile).