During Chinese New Year, Kueh Bangkit is a must-have cookie for many families and it has become our family favourite ever since I started making them a few years ago.
Kueh Bangkit is a fragrant and tasty cookie that simply melts in the mouth and leaves a creamy and coconuty taste that most people cannot resist.
To dough mix should not be too wet or dry. If it is too wet, the cookie will expand until the pattern disappears. If it is too dry, the cookie will be very hard.
Try to get very fresh tapioca flour. Do check the manufacturing date before buying it. Put the whole packet of 500g tapioca flour with pandan leaves in a wok and dry-fry over low heat until the pandan leaves turn dry and the moisture disappear and it becomes light and fluffy. This takes about 15 - 20 minutes. Let the flour totally cool to room temperature before sieving it (you will be left with less than 500g after sieving). Pack sieved fried flour into a plastic bag and store it in the fridge until needed.
Get 1 whole grated coconut without the brown coloured layer (1 coconut is able to squeeze out about 150-200ml coconut milk) and extract the milk. Put all the milk that you have extracted into a pot with 2 tbsp of sugar, salt and some pandan leaves and bring it to a simmer over low heat ( do not over boil it, it will curd if over boiled ) until all the sugar and salt are dissolved and fragrance of the pandan leaves fuse into the coconut milk and let it cool before using it.
Ingredients for making kueh bangkit:
350g fried tapioca flour ( Dry-fry the whole packet of 500g, the amount will reduce after the moisture disappear, you might need extra flour for adjustment)
5 pieces of pandan leaves
1 tsp of salt
2 large egg yolks
120g fine granulated sugar (2 tbsp to put into the coconut milk)
150ml of thick coconut milk( with all the milk you extracted from 1 whole fresh coconut, add 2 tbsp of sugar, salt and pandan leaves, bring to low simmer)
Cream egg yolk and sugar
add tapioca flour alternately with the coconut milk to the egg mixture
adding coconut milk
the final dough is firm and not sticky
baking tray lined with baking paper
Method:
Wash the pandan leaves. Wipe them dry and cut into 3cm pieces
Over low heat, dry-fry the tapioca flour in the wok together with the pandan leaves till it is very light and fluffy. It takes about 15mins, let it totally cool down to room temperature and sieve. Packed sieved fried flour into a plastic bag and store it in the fridge until needed.
Over low heat, boil coconut milk with some pandan leaves and 2 tbsp of sugar ( taken from the amount 120g fine granulated sugar) and salt. Leave to cool before use.
Beat egg yolks and the balance sugar till light lemony and creamy. Add sugar slowly so as to ensure all the sugar dissolve easily.
However if the sugar does not dissolve properly, you can add some coconut milk first before you add the flour (see step 6 below).
Add flour and coconut milk, alternately, to the egg mixture slowly. The last addition of the flour should be done bit by bit to get a good firm dough. The dough should not be too wet or dry. If it is too wet, the cookie will expand until the pattern disappears. If it is too dry, the cookie will be very hard.
Roll dough to 1/2 cm thick and cut out cookie with the cookie cutter. Lay them on the baking tray lined with baking paper (to prevent cookies from sticking onto the tray after it is baked).
Bake in a preheated oven at 160°C for about 15 mins. I prefer the kueh bangkit to be a little over baked so that it turns a little brown at the sides. This makes it more fragrant.
