Nian Gao Baked Sweet Potato Sticky Rice Cakes Recipes

NIAN GAO (BAKED STICKY RICE CAKE WITH RED BEAN PASTE)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven and prepare baking dish: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
• Whisk together flour, sugars, and salt: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. If the brown sugar is clumpy, use your fingers to break it up.
• Combine the wet ingredients: In a separate bowl or 8-cup liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, and oil until fully combined. I tend to use a large liquid measuring cup since I need to measure out the milk and oil and it allows me to pour it out into the batter easily.
• Cool cake on wire rack: Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely in the pan. Let it rest for at least 4 hours. It's very sticky and gooey if you cut it while it's still hot. The longer it rests, the easier it is to handle.

NIAN GAO

Steps:

• Bring a wok filled with 1 to 2 inches of water to a boil over medium-high heat (the water should be low enough so it doesn't touch the cake pan once it is added). Alternatively, you can use a bamboo steamer or a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket.
• Bring the brown slab sugar and 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons of cold water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally as the slab sugar tends to stick to the bottom of the pot, and cook until the sugar melts. Turn off the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Set aside to cool until no longer steaming, about 6 minutes.
• Mix both kinds of rice flours together in a large bowl and set aside.
• Grease an 8-inch round cake pan with the remaining 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment circle and lightly grease the parchment with more vegetable oil. Set aside.
• Gradually add the sugar syrup to the rice flours in three additions, stirring with a rubber spatula until there are only a few small lumps of flour. The mixture will be stiff at the beginning but will loosen after stirring for about 1 minute.
• Strain the batter through a fine-mesh sieve set over another large bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and cover with aluminum foil. Place the pan over the steamer and steam over medium heat until the cake is light brown and almost translucent, about 2 hours; refill the steamer after every 10 to 15 minutes as the water evaporates.
• The classic way to check for doneness is by taking a small piece from the center of the cake with a chopstick (or a butter knife) and then placing a dried red date on top of the hole to hide it and provide a kind of decoration. Remove the pan from the steamer and set aside until cool enough to handle. Flip the nian gao onto a large plate and peel off the parchment.
• To serve right away, cut the cake into 1/2-inch-thick wedges using a greased knife. Enjoy the bouncy texture.
• For pan-fried nian gao, allow the cake to cool completely and, without slicing, cover the cake with foil. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight. Slice into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Pan-fry in a lightly greased nonstick skillet over medium heat, flipping halfway through, until browned in spots, about 10 minutes. Enjoy while hot for the perfect chewy texture and serve with condensed milk if desired as a dipping sauce.

NIAN GAO (BAKED SWEET POTATO STICKY RICE CAKES)

Steps:

• Combine the glutinous rice flour and ¾ cup/180 grams water in a bowl to form a dough. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes and pat them dry thoroughly with a clean kitchen towel. With a fork, poke holes all over the sweet potatoes. Bake on a foil-lined pan until a fork can pierce it with no resistance, 40 to 50 minutes.
• When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin. Pass the sweet potato through a ricer or mash with a fork. Measure out 1¼ cups/320 grams of the mashed sweet potato. (Reserve any remaining for another use.)
• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine coconut milk, sugar and salt in a large saucepan. Set the saucepan over medium-low heat, and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot but not boiling, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring until it melts. Mix in the sweet potato mash, followed by the tapioca starch, then add the refrigerated wet glutinous rice flour gradually in chunks, whisking as you go. Add the egg and whisk until smooth.
• Heat 1 or more kuih bahulu pans in the oven until very hot, 7 to 8 minutes. If you don't have a kuih bahulu pan, a decorative cakelet pan or mini muffin tin made out of cast iron or aluminum works (see Tip). The batter yields 24 to 42 nian gao, depending on the size of the hollows; work in batches if needed (see Tip). Remove the pan from the oven and, using a silicone or pastry brush, lightly and quickly brush its hollows with oil. Stir batter, then quickly pour it into the hollows, filling them 80 to 90 percent full.
• Bake on the center rack until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of one emerges moist and sticky, but with no pasty raw batter on it, 20 to 40 minutes. The exact baking time will vary depending on the size and heft of your pan.
• Use a wooden skewer or butter knife to pry out and remove the nian gao from the pan. If the pan was properly heated and oiled, the nian gao will not stick. If needed, repeat with the remaining batter. If the pan cools off too much while you are removing a batch of nian gao, heat it for a couple of minutes in the oven before baking the next batch.
• These nian gao are best served slightly warm while the edges are still crisp and the centres are soft and chewy. They are best the same day they are made. You can keep leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator and steam, pan-fry or microwave them to reheat the next day, but they will not completely recover their freshly cooked texture.