Angku Kuih Recipe Revisited ( 红龟糕-花生馅） - Guai Shu Shu (2024)

Updated post on 5-May 2016

To share a new recipe of using purely glutinous rice recipe. There are a small minority of the members commented that the angku kuih crust using half sweet potatoes puree is not chewy enough. Yes this the recent new recipe that root puree was added to “enhance” the texture and softness. However, this is different from those traditional angku kuih and those sold in the market now. They are prepared using 100% glutinous rice. Note that for this method, the imprint will not be overly clear due to the stickiness of the glutinous rice flour.

I have also take this opportunity to introduce the Pandan crust which is well liked by many. I am short of pandan leaves and therefore the colour is very pale.

INTRODUCTION

This is modified old recipe for angku kuih that I issued almost 1.5 years ago. There is nothing wrong with the old recipe but it is not as systematic as I wanted it to be. Therefore, I have decided to rewrite the post and prepare 2 batches of 40 angku kuih with the usual peanut fillings. If you are interested in the old post that have much more background, you can refer to this post: An Auspicious Chinese Steamed Cake–Red Tortoise Steamed Cake, Angku Kuih （红龟粿）.

I have included in this post a new recipe of using purely glutinous rice flour for the dough. This shall be the most traditional method before the addition of fruit or vegetable puree to the dough.

Throughout these 1.5 years, i have prepared many angku kuih and using different type of sweet potatoes and different moulds. Whatever colour of the sweet potatoes used, you will get one shade lighter of the puree used. If you used yellow sweet potatoes, the colour will be yellow.

To make it more stunning, you can use purple colour sweet potatoes . What is shown in the picture below is bite size kuih that is only 1/3 the normal size of the kuih.

You can also use pandan colour. More pandan leaves will make the colour greener.

But the traditional colour of the kuih is red and to attain the red colour, you have to use red colouring. Red is the joyous occasions for Chinese and for religious praying purposes, you will need to at least attain this colour code. I personally found that his mould without the base (that is feet and head produced a beautiful angku kuih but with the heat and feet, the angku kuih will be very big about 1.5 times what is sold in the stores.

If you are very wary of using colouring, some will use red yeast rice powder. Well what is get is something like below and I do not think that is the right colour code. In fact , i think it look like blood colour that the zombie is eying for . A definitely no no for my religious praying in my humble opinion.

What I am sharing today is an extension of the old recipe and I will explain the preparation along the way.

Personally, I find today picture taking is not up to expectation. I suspected is the mould angle and kuih colour that make it difficult to show the imprint. If you look at the physical kuih, the imprint is very clear. Texture of the kuih also affect imprint for picture taking. I found the softer the dough, the more beautiful is the kuih. I may have the wrong observation..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings : About 15-20 depending on size of mould

For Peanut Fillings

• 300 grams of fresh peanuts (花生）
• 150 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
• 25 grams of roasted sesame seeds （芝麻）
• 50 grams of plain water （白开水）- optional
• 10 grams of peanut oil or other cooking oil (花生油）
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour （普通面粉）or glutinous rice flour (糯米粉）

For Mung Bean Fillings

• 200 grams of split mung beans (豆瓣 ) – soaked overnight

• 100 grams of sugar (白糖）

• 1 tablespoons of sweet potatoes starch or wheat starch （雪粉 或 澄粉）

• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (食用油）

• Few pieces of pandan leaves (optional) （香兰叶）

  See Also

  Easy Sugar Cookies Recipe 

Normal Glutinous Rice Flour Dough – Method 1 (hot water method)

• 300 grams of glutinous rice flour (糯米粉）
• 300-330 grams of HOT BOILING WATER （热开水）- Estimation
• 1 teaspoon of cherry red colouring （食用红色色素）
• 20 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
• 50 grams of cooking oil （食用油）

PandanGlutinous Rice Flour Dough – Method 2 (boiling method)

• 300 grams of glutinous rice flour (糯米粉）
• 300-330 grams of cold water（冷水）- Estimation
• 10 pandan leaves (香兰叶）
• 20 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
• 50 grams of cooking oil （食用油

Sweet Potatoes Glutinous Rice Flour Dough

• 200 grams of sweet potatoes （番薯）
• 200 grams of glutinous rice flour （糯米粉）
• 20 grams of castor sugar （细砂糖）
• 50 grams of cooking oil （食用油）
• 50 grams of hot water (热开水）- Estimation
• Some red permitted food colouring (食用红色素）- Optional if you are not preparing traditional type.

* Choose either one of the dough types

Others

• An angku mould （龟印）
• 15 pieces of cleaned andgreased banana leaves with the size of about 6cm x 6cm （香蕉叶）

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Roast the peanut in the oven at 150 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Give it an occasional stir. Cool completely and place the peanut in a sift. Use your hand to rub the roasted peanuts to get rid of all the skin. Transfer the roasted peanut to the blender.

Note:

• You can also by pass this stage and use store bought peanut powder. However, the deliciousness of the kuih will directly related to the freshness of peanut powder. If the peanut powder is not fresh, your filling will not be delicious. Take some of the peanut powder and taste the freshness before proceeding.

• You need to keep a close eye on the roasting. One way of assessing readiness is the aroma. If there is aroma and you can use hand to take away the skin easily. It is considered as done. Timing will depend on size of the peanut too.

• Blend the roasted peanuts until fine. Add the sugar, plain flour, peanut oil and peanut oil. Blend again until fine and well mixed. Gradually add in the water until it form a dough. Add the sesame seeds, stir until well mixed and set aside.

Note:

• You have to add the water gradually too as there are different water absorbing property of different batches of peanut. As long as it can become a filling dough, it is acceptable. If you prefer dry type, you can reduce the water but wrapping can be tougher.

• If you do not have food processor, you can pound the peanut using mortar and pestle until fine. Transfer to a bowl and hand mixed all the ingredients until it forms a pliable dough.

• For mung bean fillings: steam the soaked mung beans and pandan leaves under high heat until soft. It took me about 25 minutes. Throw away the pandan leaves and transfer the steamed mung beans to a food processor, blend until fine. Add the sugar and starches, continue to blend until it form sticky paste. Transfer out and set aside.

• This step is only for normal glutinous rice flour dough only. If you are using sweet potatoes, please skip and proceed to the next step.

• Add 1 teaspoon of red colouring to 200 grams of hot boiling water. In a bowl, put the glutinous rice flour, oil and sugar. Stir and make a well in the centre. Add the red colour hot boiling water to the glutinous rice flour GRADUALLY. Use a chopstick to stir until a crumbly dough is used. Use hand to quickly knead the warm flour until it forms a pliable dough.

Note:

• It is imperative that HOT BOILING WATER is used. The main purpose is to make the dough slightly sticky such that it will not break. The dough may be rather warm to hot. If you really cannot take the heat, you can use a standing mixer to do the job.

• You may or may not need to use all the hot water. Every brand of glutinous rice flour have different absorbing properties. As such , you have to add gradually. Otherwise, it will become a sticky mess.

• If you are uncertain about whether the colour tone is correct, after preparation of dough, pinch some and steam to see if this is the colour that you are looking for. If not, adjust according by adding more colouring.

• This is the second method of using pure glutinous rice and the dough is easier to shape. This is called the cooking method.

• Blend the pandan leaves and sift the juices to a pan. Bring to boil and once it boils, add half of the glutinous rice flour. Stir until it become a sticky dough. Off the heat and add the remaining half of the glutinous rice flour follow by the cooking oil. Knead until it forms a pliable dough.

• Steam the sweet potatoes until soft which took about 15 minutes. Transfer the hot steaming sweet potatoes to the food processor, add the glutinous rice flour, sugar and peanut oil, blend until it forms a crumbly dough.

• Put 1 teaspoon of red colouring and mixed with 50 grams of hot boiling water. Transfer these red hot solution gradually to the crumbly dough. Blend until fine and it forms a pliable dough.

Note:

• You may or may not need to use all the hot water as it will depend on the moistness of the steamed sweet potatoes and glutinous rice flour water absorbing properties. If the sweet potatoes is very moist, you may not even need to use any water.

• I have decided to use the food processor because my mash sweet potatoes are very rough and difficult to mash manually. Using food processor is optional and you can always manually mash the potatoes and knead the dough.

• Get ready the angku mould, pinch some dough and press down the mould. Knock it out and weigh the dough . Use your preferred dough to filling ratio, calculate the weight of dough and filling required.

• Divide the dough and fillings based on the weight measured. Cover the dough with a piece of wet cloth to prevent moisture lost.

• Take a dough, shape round, flatten it, put a filling on top of the dough. Seal the dough and shape round again .

Note:

• For this mould, the dough is about 50 grams and I have decided to use the dough to filling ratio of 1:1. Therefore, my dough is 50/2 = 25 grams and my filling is 50/2 = 25 grams. If your dough weigh 75 grams and you decided to use 1:1.5 dough to filling ratio, your dough will 75/(1+1.5) * 1 = 30 grams and your filling will be 75/(1+1.5) *1.5 = 45 grams .

• This recipe assuming dough and filling is of the same weigh, if you alter the ratio of 1:1, you may have excess dough or fillings .

• It is advisable that do not decrease the dough to filling ratio if you are new to making the cake. There will be a tendency to break. Too much filling will also make the cake too sweet. However, if you are not confident on the ratio of 1:1, feel free to increase the dough weigh to 1.5.

• Every angku mould is different. This step is imperative for all moulded kuih.

• If the dough is too dry and have a tendency to break, salvage by patting your palm with some water before shaping round. A tendency to break means the water is not hot enough during the first step of dough preparation.

• If the dough is too wet and sticky and stick to the mould, you can add some flour to make it drier. A good dough SHALL NEVER stick to your mould. In the even it stick, you have to use some thing like satay stick to dig out all the dough before proceeding to mould the next kuih. You can also dust some flour to the mould to help the moulding if it is overly sticky.

• Press down firmly and dislodge the cake by knocking the mould on the table. Put the cake in a piece of the greased banana leaves. Transfer to the steamer tray. Perform the same for the remaining dough.

• Bring the water in the steamer to boil. Once boiling, transfer the steamer tray to the steamer, REDUCE THE HEAT TO LOW and steam for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, open the cover, lightly wash the cake with some cooking oil (to prevent sticking), and continue to steam the cake for another 5-7 minutes.

Note:

• When you dislodge the cake, knock left side of the mould one time, knock right side of the mould, knock left, knock right until the dough come out. This is especially important to prevent loop sided kuih when the dough is soft.

• If your dough is soft, use a spatula to flip the kuih from bottom. Do you use your finger to take the kuih as the imprint will be blurred.

• Your banana leaves must be brushed with some oil, otherwise, the angku kuih will stick to the mould.

• It is logical that you did partial steaming during the process meaning once the steamer tray is full, proceed to steam. While steaming, mould the other angku kuih to save the time of preparation.

• If your angku kuih become flat, it means your heat is too big or you have steamed too long. Remember always used low heat during the steaming .

Storage of Angku Kuih

• Angku kuih when cooled shall be store in an air tight container to maintain its moisture. If it was left in the open , it will turn hard easily. Once it turns hard, you will have to incorporate the moisture back to the kuih by re-steaming until soft which took less than 5 minutes.

• Depending on the fillings, fillings such as coconut and mung bean fillings or yam fillings can turn bad rather easily especially if it is keep in an air tight container without ventilation. Therefore, it is best to store in the refrigeration. Resteaming after taking out from the fridge will help to turn back its softness.

• Beside resteaming, some granny pan fried the angku kuih with some minimal amount of oil such that the crust become crispy.

CONCLUSION

I am preparing for certain purposes and I thought I might as well rewrite the post for the benefit of the readers. In this 1.5 years, I have learn a lot by trial and error and I hope my pointed will help the readers. If I can do it, any person walking down the street can do it too.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have nice day. Should there be any imperfections in my blog layout, bear with me and I am trying hard to rectify it. In the event that you are a follower of Guaishushu at http://kwgls.wordpress.com, please do follow this new blog Guaishushu1 at https://www.guaishushu1.com.

You can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Related