Foodie

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Kuih Bangkit Gula Melaka Flavored




Gula melaka a.k.a. Palm Sugar or 'Malacca Sugar'.  Why Melaka/Malacca,?  I have no idea and hope that you readers can enlighten me.  Gula melaka is made by first extracting the sap from the flower bud of a coconut tree. Several slits are cut into the bud and a pot is tied underneath the bud to collect the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks.







 Coconut palm sugar is being advertised as a healthy sugar; low in the glycemic index and full of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. It apparently tastes great with amazing caramel and butterscotch taste and it's gaining popularity rapidly until most coconut farmers are cashing in to this new high demand of palm sugar as  "healthier sugar", by converting their coconut trees into coconut sugar production.  No wonder, the price for a can of coconut milk/cream has triple the price lately.


I do not use gula melaka/palm sugar for any other reasons except to flavor these few desserts like
Onde Onde,
Kuih Dadar,
Kuih Koci,
Kuih Koci Pulut Hitam,
Kuih Talam Ubi Kayu,
Lepat Ubi Kayu/Casava Wrap,
Kuih Kosui


and now am using it to flavor my Kuih Bangkit, and can you tell me the characters of these cookies?  They are pressed from the same mould.




Ingredients:

225g tapioca flour
3 pandan leaves cut into small pieces
30g margarine
90 gm gula melaka/palm sugar - chopped fine
1 egg yolk
75ml – 90ml coconut milk
a pinch of salt













Method:

Line a large pyrex bowl with greaseproof paper, microwave the flour and pandan leaves on high 1 min at a time for 5 times, stirring every minute.

Set aside, cool completely before using.

Cook gula melaka and 75 ml coconut milk in medium low heat until gula melaka dissolves.  Set aside to cool.
Cream margarine, then add in yolk cream well till well combined, then add in the cooled gula melaka and coconut milk mixture.

 Add flour to mix till a non-sticky dough is formed. If dough is too dry, add more coconut milk but add 1 tsp at a time, otherwise, dough may be too sticky. Leave dough to rest covered with a damp cloth.

Take a quarter of the dough and roll dough on a floured table to 3/8 inch(this thickness is necessary to obtain a nice size cookie)and use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Using a pincher to pinch desired designs. Alternatively wooden moulds can also be used and that omits rolling the dough.

Baked on lined tray in preheated oven at 300 f convection for 15 mins. .

Remove to cool completely before storing  


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

perhaps you should show the mold instead?

looks to me: rabbit? or plumb?

Cindy

My Asian Kitchen said...

cool!!wish I have the kuih bangkit mould,too bad my grandma give all hers away! Gong Xi Fa Cai to you and family!!

Unknown said...

This Kuih Bangkis looks delicious to me :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily,

Your cookies were baked at 300 f convecton for 15 mins, if I am using a conventional oven (without fan), what should be the correct oven temperature be in degree Celsius?

Please advise. Thanks!

Cindy

A said...

Lily

In Malacca, they used to call it Gula Tuak. Tuak is palm wine or "toddy". Among the areas in Malacca where palm sugar was made were Alai, Umbai, Bukit Rambai, Merlimau etc.

As Malacca was the major producer of this cottage industry, people from inter-state traveled to Malacca to buy them. When they returned home, most of them remembered that they bought the palm sugar from Malacca rather from where it was produced. Hence, palm sugar was more popularly known as "Gula Melaka" instead of "Gula Tuak".

Unknown said...

cindy

i am sorry for this late reply. The temp to bake would be 150 c or 160 c.

Unknown said...

A

my mil liked to go to kuala pilah, negeri sembilan to get 'gula kabung' for her dodol making.

Jole said...

Lily:

Kong Hee Fatt Choi. Your kuih bangkit looks Yum Yum. I hope there is some left when i go back to KL end of April and I am going to have my fill of Malaysian & curry foods.

Matty H said...

cindy: without fan-forced oven, you would need to increase the temperature by 20 degrees..

Lily: I was told that Melaka produced one of the best gula melaka.. There is a chendol shop in Singapore that only imports from a specific farm as the taste is far superior to most other producers of gula melaka...

Happy Year of the Dragon to you and all your readers!! Thank you for sharing the recipes!!

raymond yong said...

hi lily

something i like to share. try substituting 10% weight of tapioca flour with arrowroot flour and the kueh bangkit will melt in your month.but it is very difficult to buy arrowroot flour in kuala lumpur, only the old shops keep stock. some baking ingredients shops may have it. i used to help mum n aunties bake kueh bangkit before chinese new year when young.

raymond

Unknown said...

raymond

arrowroot flour is readily available in the asian stores here

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