Coconut Croissant Pudding with Kaya

I have a small confession to make; I've never really gotten excited about bread and butter pudding. There's something slightly unappealing about the idea of baked soggy bread to me. I know, you'd expect me to be a fan of anything sweet, but this is one of the ones that I haven't gotten my head around until now. (I'm also still on the fence about rice pudding.)

But a few weeks ago my friend Re asked me why I had never tried making bread and butter pudding. She suggested that I try and make it with an ingredient that I loved to make it my own; kaya (Malaysian coconut jam). I was suddenly intrigued. And then I recalled a super old episode of Nigella where instead of using stale bread, she used stale croissants to make a very indulgent version of bread and butter pudding with caramel. At the time I scoffed at the idea of ever having croissant sitting around my house long enough to go stale. I put off doing this for so long because the two most important ingredients (croissants and kaya) were things that I tend to eat quickly so I don't have enough of it leftover to make anything with! But now the idea of trying this dish was good an idea to pass up. I bought a bunch of croissants and hid them away to stop myself from eating them. I hoarded a few jars of kaya from the Asian grocers.

To keep going along with the whole coconut theme of this dish, I made a coconut custard mixture to soak the croissants in, as well as dolloping a generous amount of kaya throughout the pudding. To add a bit of crunch, I sprinkled some roasted coconut chips after baking. The result was kind of incredible. A puffed, golden brown pudding with flakey buttery layers, mixed with a lovely coconut flavoured custard and warm pockets of coconut jam and that last final crunch of the coconut flakes on top. It smelt SO GOOD. It tasted even better, especially when it was straight out of the oven and the pastry was still all flaky and a little crunchy on top.

This is definitely not a light dessert. But I didn't find it over-the-top heavy since I decided not to add any extra sugar to the egg mixture as I knew I was adding so much coconut jam. The mixture has enough moisture that you don't need to add any sauce or cream to enjoy it, though serving it with a some extra kaya will surely go down well.

Yeah don't ask my why I'm making seasonal berry cheesecakes one week and then a pudding the next week (after a couple of boiling hot days too). There's no method to my madness, I just really wanted to try making this. And I'm so glad I did. I think I may be a convert to this whole bread and butter pudding thing, but it might just be due to the buttery croissants and abundance of kaya. I'm so glad my friend pushed me to try something new, it's so easy for me to stay in my comfort zone of baking.

I don't expect everyone who reads this recipe to know what kaya is (though regular readers should be fairly familiar with it, since I'm so obsessed with the stuff), or to have easy access to it (you can make it yourself but it's quite time consuming) so I've included alternate ingredients if you still want to make a coconut croissant pudding. However a lot of Asian supermarkets these days (at least in Aus) stock kaya now, you can usually find it near the coconut milk and cream. If you're in Sydney I'd recommend the Nona brand, I've seen it at Castle Towers, Eastwood and Chatswood Chase. It's definitely worth tracking down for this dessert, it just adds a little something.

Coconut Croissant Pudding with Kaya (Coconut Jam)

(serves about 6, adapted from this Martha Stewart recipe)

About 3 croissants, torn into large pieces (you may need to adjust the amounts of this recipe to suit the size of your baking dish)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut cream
1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup kaya (you can make your own, or if unavailable add 1/2 packed cup brown sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract to your egg mixture)

Roasted coconut flakes (or shredded/desiccated coconut)

Optional: a few drops of vanilla or pandan extract to add extra fragrance

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and butter a shallow, heavy baking/gratin dish or iron skillet (mine was approx 21cm x 15cm). In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, salt, coconut milk and coconut cream (and sugar and vanilla if you are not using kaya). Add croissant pieces and allow to soak in mixture for about 10 minutes. Pour contents into prepared dish, layering with large dollops of kaya throughout the dish. If using untoasted coconut, sprinkle over the top and place in the oven.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until puffed and golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre (a non-kaya part) comes out clean. At this point I sprinkled roasted coconut chips over the top, but you can skip this if you baked it with coconut flakes on top. Serve immediately, can be served with extra kaya.

Pandan Cotton Soft Cheesecake with Kaya

I didn't make this cake for Christmas, I made it for my brother's birthday a couple weeks ago. But I thought I'd share it with you guys because it is SO GOOD, and it's red and green so it's still relevant to the season. I've made plain Japanese cotton soft cheesecake before, the such a magical hybrid of cheesecake and sponge cake but this one has a Malaysian spin to it. This one is flavoured with pandan, and the cake is filled with kaya. If you've read my blog for a while and you don't know what either of those are then I will be sad. I've written about it a lot. Pandan-flavoured stuff is awesome. Kaya is AWESOME. This cake is awesome.

The pandan flavouring gives the cake that neon green hue, and I think the strawberries work really well as a topping, both looks and flavourwise. The super light and soft pandan cheesecake is fun alternative to the usual pandan chiffon cake, and it works really well as a cheesecake flavour. Because the cake itself is so light and has a bit of a tangy flavour from the cream cheese, it goes well with that thick layer of coconut jam in the middle. Kaya is the sort of thing that shouldn't be eaten in moderation.

I'm silly and completely forgot that I needed to bake cakes in a water bath, which is why the outside is a little browner than you might expect. But when you cut into the cake it looks pretty impressive. If you couldn't be bothered splitting the cake into two separate layers you can bake it as one cake and spread the kaya on top instead. And if you can't be bothered making your own kaya or buying some from the Asian supermarket, you could try filling the cake with some coconut flavoured cream.

Anyway, I wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays. I'll be back next year with more sugary, buttery recipes!

Pandan Cotton Soft Cheesecake with Kaya

(serves 12, adapted from this recipe from Diana's Desserts)

140g/5 oz fine granulated sugar

6 egg whites

6 egg yolks

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50g/2 oz butter

250g/9 oz cream cheese

100 ml/3 fluid oz fresh milk

2 tsp pandan paste (you will need more if using pandan essence, adjust to taste)

1 tbsp lemon juice

50g/1.75 oz plain/all-purpose flour

30g/1 oz cornflour (cornstarch)

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup kaya (Malaysian coconut jam, available at most Asian groceries or here's a recipe to make your own)

Optional: Fresh strawberries or other fruit to decorate

Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease base and sides, and line the base of two 18cm round cake tins with baking paper. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and pandan paste and mix well. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Add cream cheese mixture to egg white mixture and stir until combined. Split mixture between the two cake tins. Bake cheesecake in a water bath (I forgot the water bath, this isn't the end of the world it will just be a little drier on the outside) for about 50 mins or until set and golden brown at 160°C (320°F).

When cakes are ready, cool them very slowly to stop the cakes from collapsing in the centre. Turn the oven off first for 5 mins, then open the oven door and let it cool for another 10 mins, then cool in tin for 15 mins. Remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Sandwich the two cake layers together with the kaya in between. I topped my cake with strawberries, which had been hulled, halved and marinated in sugar for an hour. Serve immediately or store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to about 3 days.

Pandan Coconut Sandwich Cookies

Hiya! Hope everyone had a great weekend, here in Australia we had a long weekend which is why this post is coming a little late. As expected, the last week has been completely nuts with the wedding and then a week spent with my relatives visiting from overseas. I am exhausted, but in a good way. The wedding was amazing, A & I had such a perfect day and night and we were so happy to celebrate with all our closest family and friends. Even with all fingers and toes crossed and my Mum doing an anti-rain dance, it poured the entire day and my dress got a little muddy but we didn't let it affect the day at all. I knew my bad luck when it came to the weather, so all our venues were totally under cover, and I had a big pile of cute polka dot umbrellas. Karen was sweet enough to take some amazing photos of the food at the reception at Quay with her shiny new camera, so when I get the chance I'll try to put together a post.

These are some of the flowers that we brought back from the wedding, our house was full of lovely smelling flowers all week. I actually had quite a disappointing experience with my florist/decorators but I won't go into the details. Anyway, it was just great to get back into my kitchen and do some relaxing baking yesterday, after days of running around shopping and sightseeing with my cousins and nights of eating out. I finally started feeling human again once I had my favourite purple silicon spatula in my hand. With all my cousins around my Malaysian accent has come out of hiding, and it seemed appropriate to bake something with a uniquely Malaysian flavour. I have mentioned pandan flavouring many times on this blog, and will use any opportunity to tell others about how awesome it is. The aroma and flavour of pandan leaf is so pleasant and works so well with coconut, so I decided to make some simple pandan flavoured shortbread and sandwiched a sticky coconut filling in the middle, similar to the filling you get in Bounty or Mounds bars.

The cookies are REALLY good, in fact they tasted so good on their own that we polished off half a batch before I made the filling. The bright green colour comes from the colouring in the pandan paste, and the strong flavour from the paste combined with a super short, buttery and slightly salty shortbread makes these incredibly addictive. The filling on its own seems pretty sweet, but when you sandwich it between two of these biscuits, it melts in your mouth and it all makes sense. Of course, you have to be a fan of coconut to like these. I have had these weird cravings for Bounty bars recently, so I mixed up dessicated coconut, sweetened condensed milk (YUM) and a touch of icing sugar to make this sticky, delicious filling.

My one big tip when making these biscuits; make sure you leave the dough to rest for a long time. The more time you chill them, the longer the dough holds its shape in the oven. I was too impatient and baked my cookies too soon, and they expanded heaps and I had to trim the edges to make them neat again. It wasn't too bad a mistake since it meant I had lots of offcuts to nibble on :D Anyway, my life is slowly heading back to normal and I could not be happier. But I'm about ready to collapse from exhaustion, I think it's time for a nap!

Pandan Coconut Sandwich Cookies

(makes about 30 cookies, adapted from this recipe)
2 1/2 cups (approx 300g) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
280g (2.5 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups (approx 200g) sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp pandan paste (use more if only using essence, adjust to taste)

For the coconut filling:

1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut

8 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp sifted icing sugar

Prepare the dough well ahead of time; sift flour, bicarb, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Add egg yolk and pandan paste and beat to combine, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure it mixes evenly. Beat in dry ingredients at a medium-low speed until just combined. The dough should be easy to handle and quite firm. Roll dough into 3 separate logs, about 4cm (1.5 inches) in diameter, wrap well in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight. You can refrigerate this dough for up to a week, or freeze it for up to a month (defrost overnight in the fridge).

Prepare at least two baking trays with baking paper. Take dough out of fridge and unwrap. If making rounds, use a sharp knife to cut rounds, about half a centimetre thick. Place rounds on dough, leaving at least 4cm space between each one to allow for any expansion. Keep prepared trays in fridge while cutting the rest of the dough. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake each tray for 10-14 minutes, or until the biscuits start going brown on the edges. Keep an eye on them after 10 minutes as they will brown quickly after that. Leave cookies to cool on trays for 5 mins and then cool completely on a wire rack. Prepare the coconut filling; place coconut, icing sugar and condensed milk in a large mixing bowl and stir until it comes together and is mixed evenly. If the mixture is not sticking together well, gradually add more condensed milk to the mixture until it clumps easily. Place about 1/2 tsp of filling between each cookie, press together and then store in the fridge in an airtight container for about half an hour before serving.

Sticky Rice & Kaya Macarons

I am pretty excited about these macarons. These days it takes a lot to get me excited about a macaron flavour, I find myself getting weary of them. But this one is pretty special. From the moment I started baking macarons I've always wanted to make a kaya flavoured one. Anyone who has read my blog for long enough knows about my intense love of kaya, the wonderful Malaysian coconut-egg jam flavoured with pandan, which is somewhere between a coconut custard and dulce de leche. It's heavenly. These days you can buy the spread in jars from Asian groceries around Sydney, but nothing beats the homemade version. I'm especially fussy about it because I don't like even the slightest bit of graininess in my kaya, it has to be silky smooth. The only way to achieve this is to stand over a double boiler, stirring it continuously. And I mean continously. I always have a sore arm the next morning. But it's worth the effort for every delicious drop of that golden, pandan-flavoured magic jam.

So I was a little peeved to find out that the most popular way to serve kaya was already being sold in macaron form - a kaya toast macaron, with the butter in the centre and everything! I wanted to try something original, rather than doing an idea that was already out there. So my next idea was a Kaya with Sticky Rice Macaron. This is another common way of serving kaya in Malaysia, either with a big mound of plain sticky rice or compressed squares of sticky rice tinged blue with the use of blue pea flowers. The blue squares version is known as Pulut Tai Tai, you can see a great example photo of this dessert here. It's gotta be one of my favourite Malaysian kuih ever, combining my love of kaya and my childhood fascination with blue-coloured food.

So I decided to include that wonderful blue colouring in my macaron shells, by swirling some gel colouring into the macaron mixture. I would have loved to have used the original blue pea flowers to tint the shells, but I think it's next to impossible to buy it here :( So blue food colouring would have to do. I LOVE how beautiful the shells turned out with those bright swirls of colour. I even used the leftover sticky rice to make some of the actual kuih, which you can sort of see in the photo above. Hopefully anyone who knows the original dessert can immediately tell where I got the inspiration from.

The filling for these Pulut Tai Tai Macarons is a mixture of kaya, homemade with my new improved recipe, and steamed glutinous rice. It has a strong aroma of pandan, the caramelised sticky coconut jam and a little bit of bite from the sticky rice grains, sort of like the rice pudding macaron from Adriano Zumbo. It might seem like a lot of effort for a macaron filling, but you can always reduce the prep time by using store-bought kaya if you're not as fussy as I am. But personally I think it's definitely worth the extra effort. Plus you can eat all the leftover sticky rice and kaya!

Kaya & Sticky Rice (Pulut Tai Tai) Macarons
(makes about 15 macarons)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, dried in a cool (100°C (212°F) or less) oven for 5 minutes and sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 2 x 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
Royal blue gel food colouring
Kaya jam, store-bought or homemade (my recipe here)
Sticky rice, cooked and cooled - I steamed about 1 cup in a rice cooker with a fresh pandan leaf, but you can skip the pandan if it's unavailable

Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Using a skewer, dip the tip into the blue food colouring and place several streaks of blue colour throughout the macaron mixture. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°F), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Mix together equal portions of kaya and sticky rice, I needed about 1/2 cup of each. Sandwich macaron shells with the mixture and then refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Pandan Lamingtons

Lamingtons. They are so quintessentially Aussie. We all have our preferences, some of us swear by the classic version, some like the cream/jam filled ones. And then there's pandan. It's leaves are so widely used in Malaysian dishes that it was a total shock to my system when I came back to live in Sydney 11 years ago and found that hardly anyone had heard of it. I've been over the moon with the gradual increase in Malaysian cuisine in Australia, and the eventual appearance of pandan in desserts, like Dan Hong's pandan chiffon cake on Masterchef (my only gripe is that they kept pronouncing it on the show like 'pang-dang' which made me cringe so friggin much. It's meant to be pronounced more like 'pahn-dahn').

I've put these elements together, one totally Australian and the other bringing me straight back to Malaysia, to create these Pandan Lamingtons. Lamington purists will probably be totally offended by this bright green monstrosity but if there was ever a dessert which I would use to describe myself, this would be it. It brings together my two loves, my happy childhood memories in Australia and my love of Malaysian food (including my Mum's awesome cooking). They may not be the prettiest cakes ever but they are wonderful to eat. I'd been planning them for ages and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out.

I adapted a recipe for plain lamingtons by adding some pandan essence paste to the sponge cake. It was quite convenient that the recipe used a chocolate ganache rather than a cocoa icing for the coating, as I was able to switch it to white chocolate ganache which was a much better match for that lovely soft & fluffy green pandan cake. Coconut and pandan are always perfect together, plus the shredded coconut on the outside is exactly the type of coconut that they use in Malaysian desserts and kuih. The finished lamingtons even remind of Malaysian kuih with that hint of green hiding underneath the layer of coconut (which was a total accident, the white chocolate ganache ended up being a lot more transparent than I had expected).

Pandan Lamingtons
(makes about 32, adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe)
8 eggs
250g caster sugar
3/4 tsp pandan paste (more if you use the more watery pandan essence)
250g plain flour
30g unsalted butter, melted
400g shredded coconut

For the white chocolate ganache coating:
600g white chocolate
300ml pouring cream (min. 35% milk fat pure cream)

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Grease and line the base with baking paper in a 24x32cm lamington tray, or two 20cm square cake tins. Whisk eggs, pandan paste and sugar in a heatproof bowl (it will be freakishly green at this point but don't worry, it will lighten after you whip it) over a saucepan of gently simmering water for 5-10 minutes or until warm (about 40°C/105°F), lighter and frothy. Transfer to an electric mixer and whisk on high speed in a large mixing bowl for 10 minutes or until mixture has tripled in volume. Sift over plain flour in batches and, using a metal spoon, fold gently to combine between additions. Just before adding the last of the flour, fold through melted butter. Pour into prepared tin(s) and bake in centre of oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer withdraws clean. Stand in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks and cool completely.

For the white chocolate ganache coating, combine chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. When chocolate begins to melt, stir gently until combined and smooth and set aside in a warm place.

Scatter shredded coconut over a tray. Cut sponge into 4-5cm squares. Using 2 forks, dip each square into the ganache and shake to remove excess. (If ganache starts to thicken, place bowl over gently simmering water to thin.) Roll each square in coconut, shake off excess and place on a wire rack (sitting over a tray). Stand for at least 1 hour or until chocolate sets. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 3 days.

Banana Pancakes with Lemon Coconut Curd

After spending several years growing up in Malaysia, there are so many fabulous Malaysian dishes that I associate with happy childhood memories. These days as I am living in Sydney, and am always excited to go back to Malaysia on holiday, or have my Mum visit and cook to me my favourite Malaysian treats. As I am a complete sweet tooth, I thought I would share a recipe of my Mum's that I am incredibly fond of - Malaysian Banana Pancakes. Whenever we had overripe bananas in the house my Mum would mash them up and make these deliciously fragrant pancakes for breakfast. I would wait by the frying pan impatiently and eat them too quickly, burning my tongue. They're very different to regular pancakes, small, a bit denser and a little oily thanks to the banana and coconut milk. They taste pretty great on their own, but my Mum used to serve them with fresh lemon slices and golden syrup. It was definitely one of my favourite breakfasts. The leftover pancakes were always warmed up in the microwave for a delicious afternoon snack.

Since I always like to put a fun twist in all of my recipes, I decided to replace the fresh lemon slices with an indulgent sauce - Lemon & Coconut Curd. This sauce is amazing; it's smooth and creamy and the flavour matches the banana pancakes so perfectly. The tangy flavour of lemon is the first thing to hit your tongue, but you're left with the beautiful, creamy aftertaste of coconut. I couldn't resist serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream as well. As soon as I tasted these banana pancakes, I was transported right back to my Mum's kitchen in KL. It's packed full of rich banana flavour, with lovely crisp brown edges. If you wish you can serve the pancakes traditionally without the lemon coconut curd, but I think the sauce adds a little something special. Any leftover curd can be stored in the fridge for a few days and served with vanilla ice cream, or spread on toast.

Malaysian Banana Pancakes with Lemon Coconut Curd
(makes approximately 7 pancakes)

Ingredients:
For the lemon & coconut curd:
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approximately the juice of 1 lemon)
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest (approximately the zest of 1 lemon)
1/3 cup (70g) sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup (60g) unsalted butter, cubed
4 tbsp coconut milk

For the pancakes:
1 egg
30g (approx 1/8 cup) sugar
60g (approx 1/2 cup) self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup coconut milk (can be replaced with regular milk if unavailable)
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
Butter, for frying
Optional: vanilla ice cream to serve

Method:

1. Prepare the lemon and coconut curd first; place lemon juice, zest and sugar in a medium saucepan. Place on medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves completely.
   
2. Whisk egg yolks in a medium heatproof bowl until frothy and then gradually add the hot lemon mixture, whisking continuously to combine. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.
3. Return to the heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
   
4. Remove from the heat and add the butter cubes, one at a time, whisking until fully combined. Finally, add the coconut milk, whisk to combine and set aside to cool.
5. For the pancakes, whisk eggs and sugar until light and frothy in a large mixing bowl.
   
6. Sift flour and salt and fold into beaten eggs, along with the coconut milk. Add in mashed banana and mix until combined well.
7. Heat a small frying pan with a small pat of butter. Pour in two tablespoons of batter at a time, turning the pan so that the batter forms a thin layer (or you can spread it out with the back of a spoon as the mixture is quite thick). Cook until lightly browned on both sides. You can use a paper towel to dab off any extra grease on the pancakes. Stack pancakes on a plate to keep them warm while you are cooking the rest of the batter.
8. Serve pancakes warm with the lemon and coconut curd and (optionally) a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pancakes can also be served with slices of fresh banana or lemon.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Ok, I need everyone to keep an open mind. Don't run away! Sweet corn ice cream is AMAZING. It's my favourite ice cream flavour in the whole wide world. I grew up with it in Malaysia, where sweet corn is frequently used in desserts. I get a lot of mixed reactions when I tell people about sweet corn ice cream, but c'mon. It's SWEET corn. Popcorn ice cream is all the rage at the moment (and it's awesome), so it's not too much of a leap to sweet corn ice cream, right? Trust me, it's delicious.

Whenever I eat sweet corn ice cream, I remember visiting relatives around Malaysia and waiting with my cousins on the street for the ice cream man to drive up on his little motorcycle with a big chilled metal box on the back. We'd buy sweet corn (and red bean) potong (cut) ice cream on a stick and they'd already be melting on to our hands before we had even started eating them. The ice cream was lightly flavoured with sweet corn, with a hint of coconut milk and little chunks of corn kernels throughout it. Whenever I go back to visit my parents, my Mum will always buy me a big box of sweet corn potong ice cream; she knows me too well.

Obviously sweet corn ice cream is very hard to find in Sydney. I've tried to make it at home using recipes I've seen on other blogs and I never found a recipe that was quite right. The flavour was either too rich or artificial or the texture wasn't quite right. It couldn't be too rich or too sweet, and it had to be distinctly flavoured with sweet corn with lots of chunky pieces throughout. So I finally gave up with other recipes and jumped into the kitchen and started experimenting. The results were pretty darn good. This ice cream does not require an ice cream maker, in fact it doesn't require any churning at all and it's SO easy! The whipping of the cream combined with the condensed milk means that it's light and fluffy enough to have the right consistency and texture of normal ice cream. It's packed full of sweet corn flavour, as well as a light tinge of coconut.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream
(makes approx 1L ice cream)
300ml coconut milk (I used a 270ml can)
250ml water
300ml thickened cream
200ml sweetened condensed milk
2 ears sweetcorn, shucked

Slice corn kernels off the cobs and place both the kernels and the remaining cobs in a medium sauce pan with coconut milk and water. Slowly bring just to the boil on the stovetop and then simmer on low for 20-30 mins or until the corn kernels are cooked through and the liquid has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

For a more subtle corn flavour, strain all the kernels out of the coconut milk and only stir in the 3 tbsp of corn kernels when you are ready to freeze (to be used if you want whole kernels of corn in your ice cream). If you want a stronger corn flavour, do not strain all the kernels out of the mixture. Place the mixture with the remaining corn kernels in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Strain mixture to remove any large lumps. Chill in the refrigerator while preparing the rest of the ice cream mixture.

Whip cream in a large mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. Fold in sweetened condensed milk (or beat in with electric mixer on low, take care to not overmix). Finally, fold in coconut milk mixture and leftover whole corn kernels and pour into a 1L capacity container for freezing (I froze mine uncovered in a stainless steel bowl). Freeze overnight or until set. I found my ice cream was fluffy enough but if you find your mixture is too icy, churn once in a food processor before refreezing again and it should be nice and smooth.

It might seem weird to those who have never heard of it before, but don't bag it 'til you've tried it. Hopefully one day someone in Sydney will sell it, but for now I'm more than happy to whip some up with this recipe.

Homemade Kaya (Coconut Jam), on Toast with Soft Boiled Eggs

I was so excited after I made this that I couldn't wait to post it, so it is skipping past my growing backlog of baking posts, expressed delived to you. If you've been reading my blog in the past, you will have heard about my obsession with homemade kaya. It is a thick, sweet coconut curd/jam, made with eggs, coconut and flavoured with pandan. In Malaysia, it is served on toasted white bread with a thick layer of butter, or on top of coconut glutinous rice, or even inside a pastry puff. A perfect kaya (for me), has to be super smooth, not even the tiniest hint of roughness, and caramelised so that it is golden brown. The stuff they sell in the Chinese supermarket just doesn't cut it, it's usually very grainy in texture and a green colour from the pandan essence that they use. The homemade stuff is usually cooked with fresh pandan leaves, so it doesn't turn green.

The homemade stuff is also usually made with freshly squeezed thick coconut milk, which means you need to get a fresh coconut and grate the sh*t out of it. Even with one of the nifty coconut graters that they usually use, this is a lot of work just for a jar of jam and it has been the main thing stopping me from trying this recipe at home. But after finding some fresh pandan leaves at the Thai supermarket Pontip (a couple doors down from Chat Thai), I decided to give it a try with some tetra-pack thick coconut milk from Thailand, just to see if it came close to that lovely golden spread that I miss so much.

A phone call to my Mum reveals that she pretty much knows a recipe off the top of her head, so after getting some valuable advice from her, and finding a pretty decent looking recipe by Amy Beh, I tried to make my first batch of kaya. I was very worried about it getting lumpy or grainy, so I cooked it over a double boiler at a very low heat, stirring constantly. A lot of recipes tell you to leave it to steam with a cover over it for a while, letting it caramelise, but I was too scared to try this method. The result was a very, VERY smooth spread, sweet & brown from the long cooking time, heady with the scent of pandan leaves and richly flavoured with coconut and egg. It wasn't quite as caramelised as I would have liked, so I added the extra caramelised sugar to give it that really golden tint. Served thickly spread on toast with loads of butter, and a side a soft boiled eggs with a splash of soy sauce and white pepper, this is my most favourite breakfast in the whole wide world.

Homemade Kaya (Coconut Spread)
(adapted from this recipe by Amy Beh)
UPDATED 2 Sept 2011
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
200g caster sugar
250 ml thick coconut milk (from the grated white of 2 coconuts, or the store bought if you cant get it, obviously fresh is better)
2-3 pandan (screwpine) leaves, knotted (add pandan essence to taste if you can't get the leaves)
2 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp of water

Set up a double boiler on your stove top (I used a wok full of water with a wire stand for my mixing bowl to sit on). Whisk eggs and egg yolks in a heatproof mixing bowl until it is well combined. Gradually add sugar while whisking, and beat until the sugar starts to dissolve.

Slowly add thick coconut milk to mixture, whisking until all the sugar dissolves. Strain mixture if using fresh or canned coconut milk. Place heatproof mixing bowl in double boiler, on a low enough heat so that the water is gently boiling. Add pandan leaves and stir continuously. You can use a wooden spoon to stir but I prefer to use a silicon spatula, since it helps to stop a layer from forming and getting lumpy on the bottom.

Stir continuously for 50-60 minutes. The mixture should start to go brown and thick around the 45 minute mark. If you think the mixture is cooking to fast and lumps are appearing, remove the bowl from the double boiler immediately, whisk to remove any lumps and reduce the heat before you return the bowl to the double boiler. I found that the egg white would sometimes clump together around the pandan leaves, and I had to scoop several small solid lumps of egg out of the mixture while I was stirring.

The mixture will start to get very thick and sticky. When it is at this point, remove the pandan leaves before it gets too difficult to lift them out without taking half the kaya with it.

If the mixture is starting to get too thick and it hasn't gotten brown enough, add a tablespoon of water to the kaya. It may be tempting to remove the mixture from the heat as soon as it turns brown, but you don't want to be very milky and creamy, so keep stirring it over the heat until it is light brown and not too milky. At this point if you want to be a deeper gold colour (trust me it makes it so much better), fry 2 tbsp of sugar in a small saucepan until it melts and goes golden, then add a tbsp of water and stir until the caramelised sugar is completely dissolved in the water. Carefully and slowly add sugar water to the kaya, a bit at a time, until you are happy with the sweetness and the caramelisation.

The mixture should be a smooth, lava-like texture and a dark golden colour. The double boiler ensures that the mixture does not go grainy or lumpy. Cool the kaya completely before placing in dry, clean jars. Store in fridge.
Yield: 1 jar, about 250ml

I know, the yield is piddly compared to the amount of effort you put in. But it's so worth it. My arms are still aching from the hours of continuous stirring I did, but the kaya was so good fresh off the stove with toast and soft boiled eggs.

Now as I was saying, my favourite way to have kaya is spread very thickly on white toast with lots of butter and served with soft boiled eggs, soy & white pepper. You can get this breakfast all over Malaysia and Singapore. Trust me, it is not healthy. It is not for the faint-hearted. But it's so devilishly good. I'm not lucky enough to have a soft-boiled egg maker, so this is the only way I know how to do it at home

Kaya Toast & Soft Boiled Eggs
3 large eggs
1200 ml water
Light soy sauce
White pepper

Boil water in a kettle or on the stove. Place eggs in a metal pot that comes with a lid. If you are worried about your eggs cracking, use a pin to carefully poke a hole in the base of the eggs and this is a foolproof way to stop your eggs cracking on contact with the hot water. When the water is boiled, pour over the eggs, make sure that your pot is the right size that the water level will cover the eggs. Place lid on and leave it for about 8 minutes.

Remove eggs using a slotted spoon and carefully crack along the middle of the egg using a knife. Crack open egg very gently into a small bowl, the egg white should be just set but still runny and should stick to the egg yolk. If there is still uncooked egg white then you will have to adjust the amount of time you keep the lid on the pot. Add a splash of soy sauce and a shake of white pepper.

For the kaya toast:
Get some very white bread, like the cheapo sweet white stuff. Toast two slices and cover one slice with a thick layer of butter. (I told you this wasn't for the fainthearted)

On the other piece of toast, spread a thick layer of kaya over one side. Sandwich the two pieces of toast together and then slice in half using a bread knife. Serve toast with soft boiled eggs.

This breakfast made me a very happy girl. I still want to perfect the kaya recipe, but this one is pretty decent, it tastes really good but it's just a tad milkier than I would prefer. It's probably because I used not-fresh coconut milk, but I don't think I can be bothered grating coconuts anytime soon. The stirring is pretty tiring, but the final result is worth the effort. There are definitely easier recipes out there, ones that don't require constant stirring, and others that don't use a double boiler, but I think this method gives you the smoothest kaya, and the texture is one of the most important things. If you can't get fresh pandan leaves a bit of pandan essence will do, but it might turn your kaya a bit green.