Archive for the ‘Snacks’ Category
Palitaw First Attempt
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Asian, Cooking, Desserts, Filipino, Food, Snacks
Palitaw is a Filipino dessert. It’s composed of primarily 2 ingredients, rice flour and water. It’s a fun, yet messy dish to make. If you search for a recipe, sometimes you can find exact measurements, and other times people tell you to do it by sight or texture. During this attempt, I was told to do it by feeling and didn’t have a clue how it should look. I was also impatient with it, but the end result was still good (in my opinion).
The first thing to do is to gather the ingredients. You’ll need sugar, sweet rice flour (I could only find Mochiko rice flour), sesame seeds (toasted), and grated coconut. Many people say to use freshly grated coconut, but I think it depends more on preference. I like to use a mix of both white and brown sugar for coloring. Some sites say to use white sugar or powdered sugar. I also bought sweetened grated coconut because it was cheaper and the only thing I could find. All of this at the store was about $10.
Ingredients and Measurements:
- 1 Cup Rice Flour
- 3/4 Cup Water
- 1/4 cup Grated Coconut
- 1 1/2 cups white/brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
You might need more of the last 3. These are just rough measurements.
I actually prefer toasted coconut with my desserts. I’ve never been able to have “fresh” coconut, so I always toast it since it doesn’t taste as good out of the package. There should be directions on the package on how to toast it, but if not, line a baking pan with aluminum foil and put a flat layer of the coconut on the pan. Heat the oven to 350°F. Stick the pan in the oven and stir the coconut occasionally for 10 minutes or until the coconut is a nice golden brown (or at desired toasty level).
I prefer to grind my coconut to make it stick better and because I like to mix it with the sugar and sesame seeds. So I stuck it in the food processor for about 10 seconds. You don’t have to do this, but if you do, get it reasonably small. Then mix it in a bowl with the sugar and sesame seeds. If you have the coconut at the right size, it should mix fairly easily.
In a separate bowl, mix together the rice flour and the water. I hear that the dough is made a lot better if a semi-warm water is used. Not hot, but lukewarm or something. I used slightly cold water and this is the dough I wound up with (not so good looking or easy to work with). I was told I should have worked the dough until it had a better consistency, but I’m impatient and rush things.
So after making to dough, it’s time to cook. Fill a pot up with water, the more water the better (in my opinion). Allow the water to boil. While the water is boiling, take a small amount of the dough and form it into a flat disk.
When the water is boiling, drop the dough into the water. The dough is done cooking when it floats all the way to the top. Mine doesn’t look that great because my dough wasn’t at the right consistency. Instead, I used 2 spoons and grabbed a spoonful of the dough and use the other spoon to scrape the dough off the first spoon into the boiling water. Once it floats to the top, scoop the palitaw out of the water and set it on a plate to cool down. Repeat until you are out of dough.
Once the palitaw has cooled down, it’s time to have fun. Roll the palitaw in the mixture of coconut, sugar, and sesame seeds. Then bite in to the palitaw and enjoy. It’s a sweet, chewy, and sticky snack or dessert.