Updated post on 8/1/2017

Last year I bought the ready fried green bean flour, it did not have the aroma of traditional kuih koya. I am disappointed. This year when I shopped at Phoon Huat, I saw another packaging being sold,  I bought one and I am very pleased with what I have bought. It have the aroma of green bean and very traditional fragrance.  I used it to prepare a batch and upload new pictures. Please note that there is a “FRIED” wording in the pacakage and hence there is no need to fry again.

To date, this is the most satisfactory. Home made flour have the aroma but the texture is much coarser and I do not think any home made green bean flour can be as fine as factory produced green bean flour. 

Updated post on 30-9-2016

Subsequent to the issuance of this post, I have been toying around very type of mung bean flour. It seems that I cannot get back the traditional taste or my childhood taste until today. This recipe uses Tepong Hoen Kway or white colour mung bean flour as produced by Indonesia, the taste is different.

 I bought those sold in the Singapore bakery which is type of mung bean flour premix specifically for the kuih koya as in the label. I was shocked that it is not the type that I am looking for . It is shown in picture below.

I then resort to using the split mung bean (绿豆瓣）that was used in the preparation of angku kuih. I steamed, mashed and baked. I then ground and sift the flour for the preparation.

This is what I get as in the picture below.. Taste is closer but it is still different. By the way, split mung bean does not taste and smell exactly like the green colour mung bean..

I then decided to start from raw green colour mung beans and I think i have managed to get my childhood taste and colour .

As for the texture, my experience is well moulded cookies are hard and definitely not sandy. Therefore, for this batch, i have decided mould it looser such that it melts in the mouth. I am happy with the colour and taste and texture of this batch of cookies. Therefore I have decided to upload a section of processing the mung bean to make this recipe complete. 

INTRODUCTION

I blog this purely for the sake of keeping a record of our traditional cookies..This is one of the traditional cookies that grows up with me..

In the 70’s and 80’s, this cookie is very common and in fact, I recalled that during Chinese new year, this is one of the 2 types of moulded cookies that were available. One is the famous Kuih Bangkit which is still quite commonly available and another one is this one.. the green beans cookies (绿豆糕 or lek tao ko) which is less common nowadays.

I called this the sibling of kuih bangkit because of the many similarities in the preparation. Both need simple ingredients, no oil, stir fry the flour until cook, moulding, baked or sun dried and that is it. Both have the texture of melt in the mouth …

I do not expect any people will try this recipe because I believed most do not have the mould, and not even many readers may have seen or heard about this cookies. I posted in 4 Facebook groups, two English speaking, one Indonesian and another Chinese speaking Group.  Apparently, those members who aged 40 and above can remember and  I was surprised that the method of preparation and the ingredients is the same as Indonesian recipe. In Indonesia, it is called Kue Satu, some called it Putu Kacang Hijau and there are also those who called it as Kuih Koya.

I have tried my very best to prepare this cookies and my moulding was rather lousy. As it is a new mould, it stuck in the mould and the imprint was a bit blur …However, the texture is melt in the mouth..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from: Kueh Koya (Green Bean Cookies)

Servings: About 20-30 depending on size of your mould

• 100 grams green beans flour (refer above for another type of fried green bean flour)
• 30 grams of icing sugar
• 1-2 Pandan leaves
• 25 grams of vegetable shortening
• 24 ml of water (may not need to use up all)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree Celsius.

• Put the green bean flour (mung bean flour) and pandan leaves in a tray, bake in the pre-heated oven of 150 degree Celcius for about 15 –20 minutes until the Pandan leaves curled up, aroma penetrates the house and look slight brownish. Open the oven door and stir for every 5 minutes. Let the flour cool and add in the icing sugar. Stir until well mixed. Traditionally, the flour and the Pandanus leaves were stir fried at low heat over the stoves. If the stir frying is long enough, the flour can become very brown.

• Sift the icing sugar, vegetable shortening and the cooked green bean flour into a bowl. Sprinkle the water gradually until it forms a lump. You may or may not to use up all the water . Once done , put some into the wooden kuih koya mould.press hard, level of the excess and dislodge by lightly tagged the side of the mould. Dry the kuih under the sun or bake in the oven at 130 degree Celsius until dry.

Processing from raw mung beans

• Wash the mung beans, drain and bake in the oven at 150 degree Celsius until crispy. When the mung beans is ready and cooked, you can smell the aroma. The colour will be darker and it will take about 20-30 minutes. Alternatively, you can dry fry the mung beans over the stove until the mung bean is cooked and fragrant.

• When the cooked mung bean is cooled, either use a food processor or use a pestle and mortar to blend/grind the mung bean. Food processor is optional if you can pound it directly. Pound as fine as possible and sieve using the finest sift you have. 

• Once the flour is ready, proceed to continue following the steps listed above.

CONCLUSION

As I was preparing the Kuih Koya in a rush and the imprint was not good. I will prepare more in the next Chinese New Year and another set of picture will be uploaded. Whether white or brown is all depends on individual. If you want it a bit char and believed that it is more aromatic, you can bake or stir fry a bit longer. However, I used to eat the cookies in  this snow white look, therefore I have purposely prepared it as such. Do give it a try for the sake of simple ingredients.

This recipe was included in Page 3 and Page 4 of the following E-book. 

For more Chinese New Year related cookies, snack and steamed cake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy Chinese New Year Recipes – A step by step guide” that was packed with 30 recipes, 60 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD3.50. The recipes covered various recipes from auspicious radish cake to nian gao to traditional kuih bangkit to trendy London almond cookies. Of course not forgetting both type of pineapple tarts. You can purchase by clicking the link above. You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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