As a child, I remember eating these pale and oddly-shaped cookies. Fragrant with pandan and coconut, these dry and crumbly treats end up melting on your tongue. It’s weird and delicious all at the same time. Goes well with a cup of tea – which sometimes becomes a necessity – to help wash it down. My mother tells me of how they used to collect Ovaltine tins throughout the year, in which they stored, and gifted, the kueh bangkit for Chinese New Year in Malaysia. Since the Lunar new year is coming up this weekend, I thought I’d try my hand at making these, despite the are-you-kidding-me from my mother and the eye-roll from my father.
While I knew most of the ingredient list would be readily available, finding fresh pandan leaves in previous years had proven difficult. Not so nowadays (I love living in a multicultural city!), as you can find both frozen and fresh (I used frozen – make sure to drain and pat dry the leaves) at the Asian markets. As a note, I found that the frozen ones (Rosan brand from Thailand) were quite aromatic, but it varies greatly.
Having secured all my ingredients, there was one more thing I had to obtain – a wooden mould. I checked downtown at Tap Phong and found only huge carved paddles to make moon cakes. Then I headed to Pacific Mall (cleaver shop, North entrance), and bought the closest approximation I could find, despite it still still being a bit too large. Of course, you don’t need a mould, but they’re really pretty and I always associate these cookies with the elaborate animal shapes they came in. We’re not talking animal crackers here, but intricately carved representations. Really beautiful. I had to settle for floral, however.
Now, this isn’t a complicated recipe, but it is laborious. And messy. Especially that roasting-the-tapioca part. Be prepared to have it everywhere around your stove. Ready?
Ingredients
- 400 g tapioca flour
- 6 pandan leaves (in 1″ segments)
- 250 ml coconut milk (and a bit more to spare)
- 100 g sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- red food colouring (optional)
Directions
- In a pan, roast the pandan leaves with the tapioca flour. It takes about 20 minutes on medium-low heat. You know you’re almost done when the leaves become dry and brittle. Be vigilant by the stove so that you don’t burn the flour – minutes 15-20 are sketchy. You’ll want to keep at it for pretty much a full 20 minutes or until you think it may be browning. Keep the flour as white as possible, but maximize your toasting. Set aside in a bowl and let cool. For best results, leave overnight with the pandan. Sieve the flour when cool. Note: I usually have only 75% of what I started with left at this point. That’s okay. But you’ll want some extra flour for your mould if you’re using one.
- Whip yolk and sugar until light.
- Mix in coconut milk.
- Add 350 g of tapioca flour until fully combined. By the end, you’ll be kneading this into a soft dough.
- If you see that the dough is dry, add more coconut milk, 1 tsp at a time.
- Form small bite-sized balls and place on to cookie sheet. Bite. Sized. Trust me. Think 0.5″ in diameter. If you have a mold, here’s the time to use it!
- Bake for 22 minutes at 350°F (for 8-9g dough balls). The bottoms should be brown, but the cookies should not! Let cool overnight.
- Take a toothpick and dip one end into the red food colouring (mixed with a bit of water so it’s less saturated). Usually, this dot would be for the animal’s eye, but if you’re making round cookies, one in the centre is just fine.
Having made a test-run before this weekend’s festivities, I was gratified to see my mother’s surprise and hear my father’s gruff “it’s okay” (high praise indeed!) on tasting the results. I really missed having a nice mold, both for aesthetics and for its portion size, so I will have to ask one of the Ah Po’s to bring back an appropriate mould the next time they visit Malaysia. Can’t wait to see the reactions from the aunties and uncles this weekend. Will do a photo update when I’ve got them baked up tomorrow. Silly me forgot to shoot the test cookies… >_<
Feb 16, 2010 update: The family liked it a lot! Made 150+ cookies and they all went. Guess this sparks a yearly tradition…!
![kueh bangkit White cookies on pink paper](http://www.foodpr0n.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bangkit_comp-499x210.jpg)
Not having a large enough coloured plate, I used a bright square of scrapbooking paper to make these white cookies pop.
February 12, 2010 at 3:50 pm
LOL, but you know that (not shooting the cookies) only gives you more reason to make MORE. ;)
(At first I thought you were making mooncakes too…)
February 12, 2010 at 5:12 pm
hahaha, that’ll be tonight Renée!
February 19, 2010 at 1:59 am
Hi- I am from egullet…
Anyway, I contacted an Asian store here to ask if they carry pandan leaves although I doubt it! I also asked about the mold. In case they do not have theseleaves, do you suggest I use vanilla instead?
Thanks,
Ilana
February 19, 2010 at 11:37 am
Hi Ilana! Though not traditional, I’d imagine that vanilla would work well with the coconut flavour. I suppose you’d dry-fry the vanilla beans with the tapioca flour with maybe one or two pods at the most? I’d also make sure to cut them into smaller segments as well. I don’t know what the flavour-transfer would be like, but it should work. I’d also be sure to leave the flour overnight if you can to maximize the aromatics.
As a note, my mother already suggested vanilla as a flavour booster, but I kept it purely pandan, as I didn’t want to mix the two.
I noticed that you make chocolates – it just occurred to me that you can use chocolate moulds for these cookies too. They’d be just the right size! Good luck and let me know how it goes!
January 12, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Hello fellow South East Asian (Brunei to be specific) foodie! I also grew up around “kueh” and I absolutely love the smell and taste of pandan! I made a pandan chiffon cake once and it was divine! My mom couldn’t believe I made it :)
Like yourself I am also a huge foodie (and also into photography) located in Toronto. Just discovered your site today and what a great job you’ve done! May you savour many more delicious delights this city has to offer!
January 17, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Thanks Joyce! I have a kayang recipe that I need to post, so keep an eye out for that!