Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Kuih Bakar (Pandan Sesame Cake)




Kuih Bakar is a soft sweet pandan flavored kuih with sesame seed on top. Yes, they are one of my favorite kuih but I never thought of making them (in Singapore) because they can be easily found at most of the Malay stalls. Since I am very far away from the Malay stalls, to eat them, I have to make them myself.

Making kuih bakar was not that hard, as I thought it would be. It was easy and fast. I do not know how to get my kuih bakar to be darker green. Since the pandan leaf did not leave dark green color to my batter, I added the green food color and pandan flavoring essence. I do not like the pandan flavoring essence because it has no pandan taste or smell, more like peanutty smell. I don't use the pandan flavoring essence often but I do not want to throw it away either., so once a while, I just use it....  How do you make pandan paste?  Put the pandan leaves and blend it into a paste???? Can anyone help me?

My kuih bakar do not look as great as the ones I saw Za's blog, Stay At Home Mom and other blogs and also at the Malay stalls. :( I decided to use Za's recipe instead the one from my recipe book. Despite the pale green color, my kuih were not too bad actually. They were sweet and soft. I just have to practice more to perfect it.

Left pic- before putting it in to the oven
Right pic - after removing it from the oven

Recipe from Za, Stay At Home Mom
(Quantity: 30 pieces kuih from this recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour + 1/2 tsp salt (mix)
2-1/4 cups of coconut milk
4 large eggs
2 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of pandan paste + 1 cup water (mix) (I used one pandan leaf and mix into the batter and add a few drops of the green food color and pandan flavoring essence)
sesame seeds - as much as you want

Pre-heat oven to 325F. and greased the muffin pan (I used the spray canola oil).
Beat the eggs, then add milk, butter and pandan paste mixture. Stir until well combined.
Pour into the flour + sugar mixture and use a whisk to mix the ingredients till smooth. (I used a sieve to filter the batter into the muffin pan)
Pour the mixture to fill 3/4 of the muffin pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

9 comments:

Za said...

If u had pandan leaves u should have put more of those and blended and extracted the juice. Here's the pandan paste I used. It's a gd substitute for pandan leaves although, I can't use it for things like Nasi Lemak.
http://sahmsite.info/2008/07/01/ondeh-ondeh/

lilmizlynn said...

It didn't came across my mind to blend the pandan leaves 1st when I made these.. lol!! My pandan leaves are getting low... I will look for the pandan paste the next time I go to the Asian store in Nashville. Thanks.

Unknown said...

You are such a good cook!!!!

lilmizlynn said...

Thanks Lannae.. I'll make some kuihs when we plan to meet up again in Nashville.. ♥♥♥

Simon and Erin said...

Hi there! This looks like a great recipe! I will have to try it sometime soon :) My husband's parents are from Laos and he introduced me to pandan cake, which I can't get enough of now :) We live near the Nashville area and have been looking for a place to buy pandan leaves, so we can make our own extract to bake an all natural version of the cake and other goodies :). Do you happen to know any place around that sells them, even if they're frozen?

Thanks so much!

Erin
localorganicladies.com

lilmizlynn said...

Hi Erin, pandan cakes are soo delicious.. they are my favorites.. specially chiffon pandan cakes.. yummy!! :) Once we went to Nittaya Oriental Market (331 Waldron Road, La Vergne TN 37086), they do sell frozen pandan leaves, you have to ask them and they bring it out for you.

In Nashville areas, perhaps you can try these places.... K&S World Market (5861 Charlotte Pike, Nashville TN 37246), Wang's Enterprises Inc (1309 3rd Ave N, Nashville TN 37208) or InterAsian Market & Deli, Inc. (2160 Nolensville Pike - Nashville, TN 37211). These are the Asian stores; they probably wld sell the frozen pandan leaves.

I am still looking for the pandan plant. If you ever know where to get them, pls do share. thanks :)

Simon and Erin said...

Thanks so much for posting all the asian markets! I will have to check them out and see if we can't track down the pandan leaves :)

I think we're going to try and make the pandan chiffon cake first and then I want to see if I can make a yummy version of it we had at the Basil restaurant in Franklin that had some kind of whipped icing between layers of the cake. It is sooo good!

And I'll definitely let you know if I come across the plant! I wouldn't mind having one myself if it will grow in this area.

Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

An amazing substitute for the pandan leaves/paste is a few drops of vanilla. It makes people wonder what is it that smells and tastes so familiar haha. Try it :)

Anonymous said...

in my opinion,pandan paste is better than the essence.the latter smell and taste like chemical.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...