Posts Tagged ‘rice flour’
Chizukeki Chichi Dango
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Cooking, Desserts, Food, Japanese
I guess I just don’t like Dangos or something, but I decided to try to make some today. They were good, but not the best. When it comes to Japanese snacks or desserts, they don’t seem to charm my tastebuds as well as desserts from other cultures (which I will share another sometime this week). I saw this recipe on the anime blog and decided to try it. For those of you who don’t know, my specialties for desserts are usually cakes and chocolates. So I prefer things rich in flavor and calories… The ingredients looked like they’d provide flavor. After letting them cool fully, the flavor is there, just not as much as I would like. I did however find that it was good when served with toasted coconut or with a strawberry glaze on top. The ingredients and directions are on their blog post, so I’ll just share some of the photos I took.
These are all the ingredients you need. One of the changes I might make is substituting in condensed milk or coconut milk for the water. I also might try dusting with powdered sugar instead of cornstarch mainly because I have a very sweet tooth.
I’d also top it with something when I eat it. I used coconut and a strawberry glaze, but some fresh fruit might be better.
I think my main problem is I have problems with things with rice flour if it’s not a way I’m used to preparing it. This is the first time with cream cheese, which tastes a bit foreign to me. But it wasn’t as foreign as one of the things with green tea in it, but that provided a richer flavor.
Anyways, I’ll tinker with their recipe later and go more in depth then. Rachel, for the anime blog, says that it tastes better with time. I’ve been slowly testing it as time goes by and it does. I’m just not patient when it comes to food… At least I know how to use more than a microwave unlike someone else in my house :P As always, there are more pictures in the gallery.
Mochiko Bibingka
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Asian, Cooking, Desserts, Filipino, Food
Today I made Mochiko Bibingka for the first time. I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe I found called for, but it turned out pretty good, but I think it wound up being more like a sweet sponge cake than Bibingka. It’s relatively easy to make and only takes about an hour in total before you can eat it.
So let us begin.
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 box (16 oz) Mochiko Rice Flour
- 2 tbsp Baking Powder
Preparation
Start by pre-heating your oven to 350°F. After mixing the batter, it should be baked quickly after (or so I’m told).
While the oven is preheating, cream the butter and sugars together. You can use either and electric mixer or whatever I started off using is called (pastry cutter?). I wimped out and switched to an electric mixer shortly after starting.
After the butter and sugar have been creamed together well, start mixing in the eggs one at a time. Mixing in the eggs one at a time supposedly keeps the mixture light and fluffy and creamy. It was fluffier than compared to the way we used to make Bibingka, but that wasn’t with Michiko rice flour. Anyways, after mixing in the eggs, mix in the rest of the ingreidients.
Once the batter has been completely mixed, pour into 2 greased 9-inch pans. Stick them in the oven and bake for 30-50 minutes, or until the top of the 
Michiko Bibingka is golden brown. Then allow to cool. If you want cheese on it, sprinkle it on prior to it cooling. If you want salted eggs or cream cheese in it, I’ve been told you can put it on when you start baking, or 1/2 - 3/4 of the way through it’s baking. I like mine with cream cheese, but I didn’t put any in this time as it’s my first time making it this way.
That’s how I made my dessert for lunch today. It was good, but more like a sponge cake than Bibingka. The other items in the photo are fake 
. The “soup” is just water with soy sauce and some seaweed and seaweed seasoning. It probably doesn’t taste good, but it’s photogenic… The tea is Snapple Peach Tea with a piece of green onion sitting on top of the mug since I didn’t want to search for a mint leaf. But it too was photogenic. Anyways, if you do try the recipe, I hope you enjoy it.
For more photos, check out the gallery.
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.