Updated post on 12/1/2017

While Kuih bangkit is an iconic traditional cookies that are well liked by many but not everyone like kuih bangkit because it is rather dry. Therefore, I have toyed with adding melted butter to the dough and it is less dry and the butter aroma will not be crashed.

I have updated the recipe in green as recipe 3.

Updated post on 4/2/2016

I have been baking many batches of Kuih bangkit after I issued the post and there is no fault in the texture and taste of the kuih bangkit. However, it puff up a lot and I knew exactly why it puff up because this recipe uses much more eggs than other recipes in the net. Eggs is a leavener by itself in accordance to baking theory, the puff up is reasonable. In addition, bangkit in Malay means “rise” therefore kuih bangkit is a cookies that should rise and crack..

Because of the above puffiness that make kuih bangkit look different from those in the internet, today, I have decided to prepare a batch using less egg and transfer all the liquid portion by using coconut milk. All other factors unchange and this is documented in RECIPE 2 

Seeing many people uses moulded the cookies, I have decided to test my recipe using moulds also. I could not remember seeing moulded kuih bangkit when I am young. These moulds are supposed to be used for kuih koya or lek tau ko (mung bean cookies)

CONCLUSION

• Moulded cookies are harder but still light. It is harder because we are forcing the air out of the dough and hence less air in the dough. It is more floury too that make the mouth a bit sticky too. I do not recommended moulded kuih bangkit  

• Recipe 2 flower shape cookies puff up less as expected. However, it is less aromatic because less egg and a bit denser but it look like those being posted in Facebook. 

• Personally, I prefer Recipe 1 which is fluffier, lighter and more aromatic. I will leave this to reader to decide which recipe to use.

• Once again, do not add the liquid too fast. For me, I added only when necessary and every batches of liquid do varies because of different water absorbing properties which is common. 

• If your cookies are hard, chances are you have too much water and starch has settled at the bottom of the cookies dough as explain in the blog post.

• If it sticks to the baking paper, you have either under bake the cookies or you are not using a grease proof baking paper. Note that not all baking paper are grease proof..

• It is advisable to use 100% sago flour or arrowroot flour instead of tapioca flour. 

• Kuih bangkit shall be baked until slight brownish and not ivory white. Baking longer will provide another more aromatic cookies. Traditional kuih bangkit are all brownish instead of whitish like lek tao ko

UPDATED POST ON 1-1-2015

Retesting my recipe using almost 100% sago flour and i am extremely happy with the texture. Very light and fluffy. Have made some minor amendments to the recipes.

INTRODUCTION

Making Kueh Bangkit, a type of traditional coconut milk flavoured light cookie is never in my list of cookies to be made this year. I knew all this while that this is my mother’s in laws favourite cookie. Since my wife’s sister is visiting us this week, I have decided to prepare this cookie and ask her to bring back for my mother in law.

This is a traditional cookie. Most elders will know and like the cookie. I only prepared once since I started my baking adventures. It was at least 10 years back. I remembered stir frying the flour and the results were not that satisfactory.

While browsing various Facebook food groups’ postings, I noted that one of the challenge of Kueh Bangkit is to make it melt in the mouth.. It is supposing to be a very light cookie and you should be able to ingest it without the use of your teeth.  Based on what I can recall, the Kueh Bangkit that I have eaten when I was a kid were rather “ugly” without beautiful shapes but very easy to eat.. But what is sold over the counters and the images I seen in the internet are overly beautiful, and in my humble opinion, this cookie should be quite hard. I have this firm belief that shape and texture is always a trade off. If you want to have a melt in the mouth texture, it basically also means that your dough must have a lot of air..having a lot of air will means your dough should be light and crumby..therefore the shape should not have fine imprints….

As I can’t locate my old recipe, I started to search for recipes on the net. I usually started with an image search. I looked for pictures of Kueh Bangkit that have a rugged look or possibly with some cracks. I found this recipe: Mom’s Kueh Bangkit from Journal of A Nutritionist Mom. I have confident on her Kueh Bangkit from her picture, a slight crack on the top. I jotted down her ingredients but I have used what I know about baking to make my own version of Kueh Bangkit.

In my humble opinion, making Kueh Bangkit is just like making scones. All handlings have to be light. The reason is simple – to introduce air to the dough. Therefore, a sign of crumbliness in the dough should be acceptable. Unlike scones that uses wheat flour, Kueh Bangkit uses starches – tapioca flour and I have also added sago flour, another starches commonly found in Sarawak. These flours are not good at absorbing water. The dough is likely to be wet at the bottom but dry on top. Water will sip down to the bottom. 

The objective of introducing air to the dough will also means that your flour/starch used have to be light. Traditionally, the flour were being stir fried to achieve this effect. But I have resorted to the use  of oven to bake the flour… That is not what I “invented”, I remembered reading one recipe for Ghee cookies – Kueh Momo that requires baking of flour..One advantage of baking the flour is I need not to stand by the stove, I can let it bake and occasionally stir the flour. Sifting of flour should be “dusty”. If it is not dusty, your flour is not dry enough and feathery light…Liquid should be added bit by bit as and when you do the moulding..

This is my own version of Kueh Bangkit and excuse me for not being humble to say that this is a very successful batch that produced the texture of Kueh Bangkit that I am looking for. When I took my images for this post, one piece dropped and it became like this….

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipe adapted from : Mom’s Kueh Bangkit from Journal of A Nutritionist Mom.

Servings : 2 baking trays of at least 100 cookies (depending on your mould)

Recipe 1 – Original authentic version 

• 400 grams of sago flour
• 400 grams of tapioca flour (substitutable with Sago flour)
• 100 grams of rice flour
• 350 grams of icing sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 packet (about 200 ml ) of coconut milk (not in picture) or fresh coconut milk
• 6 stalks of Pandanus leaves – cleaned, dried and cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup of additional coconut milk/water when moulding the dough

Recipe 2 (half the recipe above) – Less puff up version 

• 400 grams of sago flour
• 50 grams of rice flour
• 150 grams of icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 150 ml or grams  of coconut milk (not in picture) or fresh coconut milk
• 6 stalks of Pandanus leaves – cleaned, dried and cut into pieces
• 50 ml of additional coconut milk/water when moulding the dough

Recipe 3 (half of recipe 1) – Less dry version 

• 400 grams of sago flour
• 50 grams of rice flour
• 150 grams of icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 100 ml or grams  of coconut milk (not in picture) or fresh coconut milk
• 50 ml or grams of melted butter 
• 6 stalks of Pandanus leaves – cleaned, dried and cut into pieces
• 50 ml of additional coconut milk/water when moulding the dough

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 degree Celsius and have 2 baking trays lined with baking paper.

• Cut the Pandanus leaves into smaller pieces. Place all flours (sago, rice and tapioca flours) in a baking tray and bake in the oven at 150 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Occasionally, stir the flour. You should feel the change in lightness of the flour when you stir the flour along the baking process. As a rough guideline, when the Pandanus leaves dries up, it is considered as done. You can either use top bottom grill mode or fan mode. Fan mode is faster but slightly, slightly dustier. I use fan mode in this illustration.

• In a big container, sift the flour. When you sift the flour, it should be rather “dusty”. If your bowl is very big, you can consider cover half of your bowl with a clingy wrap. The flour should not only sit at the bottom of the container, the side of the container should have some accumulation of flour too. Use a spoon to press the small lumps on the sift and throw away all those that cannot go through the sift. Set aside and let it cool. As I am running out of time, I have prepared this batch of cookies when the flour is still warm. That is also logical as the longer the baked flour is exposed to the air, the more moisture they are likely to absorb back to the flour. Therefore, unlike traditionally beliefs of putting it overnight, I did mine as soon as my liquid ingredients were ready.

• In a big mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and icing sugar until pale. Gradually add in the coconut milk, beat until well combined.

• In the big container with the baked flour, make a well in the centre. Gradually add the egg mixture. Do not add too fast as the liquid will sink to the bottom. Use your hand to lightly knead the dough until it is just combined. Don’t worry if it is not too well mixed as you can add water along the way. It is also common to find that the dough is dry on the top part. As you mould along, it may become crumbly.. That is absolutely normal for starches..

• Take a small portion and roll it into about 3 mm thickness on a surface lightly floured with tapioca/sago/corn/potatoes starch. You can use a rolling pin but do not press overly hard. Mould into your desired shape and put in your baking tray. I strongly advise that you do this small portion by small portion. Take a small portion, roll and mould. Your dough will get crumbly along the way as water vapour is lost and some water has sipped down to the bottom. Add water teaspoon by teaspoon (from the 1/4 cup reserved water) along the way. As long as they combined and can be moulded, that is ok. Add water too fast will force the air out of the dough..

• Egg wash if desired. Egg washing will help to provide a glossier surface on the top part and provide some moisture to the cookies. For egg washing, use 2 egg yolks + 2 tablespoons of water + 2 drops of oil. For darker colour, use 1 tablespoon of water instead. REMEMBER THAT YOUR EGG SOLUTION MUST BE SIFTED BEFORE THE EGG WASHING. Otherwise, you may have some dark patches of egg whites in your cookies.

• Bake in the preheated oven of 150 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes or the bottom start to turn brownish. The cookies will be slightly soft while hot, when completely cooled on the rack, it should be crispy. As this is a very light cookie, it will become soft in the open air very fast as water vapours start to absorb back. As soon as it is cooled, store in an air tight container. In the event that it become soft even before you put in the container, continue putting into the container, without the lid closed, put it in the refrigerator. The refrigerator will help to draw the moisture out of the cookies and make it crispy again. Serving is best in an air tight container during Chinese New Year.

CONCLUSION

This is a long winded post and should be one of my very last post on Chinese New Year cookies series.

Again, I am a firm believer of shape versus texture concept.. A rugged, light Kueh Bangkit will give you a melt in the mouth texture. Forgive me again that I have my own definition of melt in the mouth… put in your mouth and bite once and it should just broken into pieces, two bites is not melt in the mouth and using tongue to break your cookies is the ideal…Average weight of my cookie is 6 grams per cookie.

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

This recipe was included in Page 1 and Page 2 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.

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