Pumpkin Granola Bar

My family loves granola and our my favourite granola supply come from "maameemoomoo" who always surprise us with her innovative flavoured granola like honey, pumpkin and chocolate. And since we have missed out Sherie's pumpkin granola during Halloween orders, I decided to try making something similar to satisfy our craving. So with a twist and some research which I Google, I manage to bake some decent Pumpkin Granola Bar instead.

Although my granola bar might not taste as good as Sheri's but at least I happy with the end result and also it's a challenge for me to bake something with such a long ingredients list too.

Deep-fried Banana with Popiah Skin

This is a yummy finger food that mum taught me while we are having a conversation about how to use those banana that I always stock up for our weekly fruit supply. She mentioned that she saw a Taiwan cooking clip from youtube which use fresh "popiah skin" to wrap banana with some Japanese mayonnaise and deep-fried till golden brown.

So without hesitate, I bought some fresh popiah skin and start making some for our morning tea.  After which when I posted this photo on my "Instagram", someone comment that it looks similar to one of their Philippines dessert which is known as Turon or Banana Lumpia.  And when I did a Google, it shows that Turon is a Philippine snack made of thinly sliced bananas and a slice of jackfruit which dusted with brown sugar and rolled in spring roll wrapper and deep-fried.

Kueh Tutu aka 嘟嘟糕

Kueh Tutu (嘟嘟糕) is a traditional Singaporean delicacy which is made using roasted rice flour and fillings such as grated coconut or peanut powder. Nowadays it is not easy to find some authentic ones which taste as good as it used to be.

Recently I have posted a Kueh Tutu photo on facebook (HERE) which draws over "300+ likes" from readers and some even suggested a few places where we can still find some yummy Kueh Tutu.

KUEH TUTU
嘟嘟糕

3rd Trial of my Kueh Tutu with Coconut Filling

My love for Kueh Tutu starts when I was in primary school as I remembered vividly that my father used to get them for me at least twice a week from one of the shop near our area. And I always love those with coconut filling compared to the rest.

So when readers ask about Kueh Tutu recipe, I thought perhaps I could try to Google. With lucky, I managed to find some posts online using a similar recipe they adapted from the Food And Travel Magazine (Singapore version). You can read more about Kueh Tutu and where to get it's mould HERE.

Recipe adapted from Food And Travel Magazine, August 2010 issue.

(Make: 12 |          Preparation: 15 minutes |         Cooking: 8 minutes per batch)

Ingredients:
1 Kueh Tutu Mould
2 Cups Rice Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Caster Sugar
170ml Hot Water
Pandan Leaves, cut into squares

Coconut Filling:
1/2 Cup Fresh Grated and Skinless Coconut
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar/Gula Melaka

Steps On Coconut Filling:-

1. Prepare the coconut filling. Heat a pan over medium heat and melt the brown sugar together with some pandan leaves.

2. Stir in the grated coconut and cook until the mixture is well coated with the melted sugar and fairly dry. Set aside.

(You can use either frying pan or microwave method to roast the rice flour)

Steps On Cooked Rice Flour:-

3. Next dry roast rice flour in a non-stick pan with some pandan leaves for 2 minutes on medium heat or alternatively you can microwave it on medium high heat (1 minute) with some pandan leaves.

4. When done, remove it from heat and leave it to cool.

5. Mix salt and sugar in the hot water and sprinkle over the roasted rice flour.

6. Using a fork combine the liquid and flour until the mixture is cool enough to touch. this this an important step, the flour mixture should not be too dry nor too wet or else it would affect the end result when shaping the kueh tutu as well as its texture)

7. Sieve the grainy mixture to get a fine and sandy texture. (the texture resemble grated coconut with that bit of moisture)

Steps On Shaping the Kueh Tutu:-

8. Fill half the kueh tutu mould with prepared flour, top with 1 teaspoon of the coconut filling and cover with more flour.

9. Place a small piece of pandan leaf over it and press with a square muslin cloth.

10. Turn it over (lightly give it a knock) on the steamer rack with the muslin cloth below.

11. Repeat the above steps until the remaining flour and coconut filling(or peanut filling) have been used up.

12. Steamed the kueh tutu for about 7 minutes on medium heat. Remove from the steamer and serve immediately.

2nd Trial of my Kueh Tutu. Photo taken using iPhone

Although making Kueh Tutu at home is not an easy task and some of you might not be able to get hold of the mould because of the country that you are in. But as long as you could get hold of the rice flour(any brand), pandan leave(can be omit), grated coconut/peanut you could apply this recipe by using similar size plastic or aluminum foil cases to act as the mould.

Just for your information, a reader(Janetan) wrote me a note to me that she found a useful tips online:-

"to let the kueh stay soft, the secret is roast the rice flour then steamed using steam bath and cover with a wet cloth".

Perhaps you would like to consider this point when preparing the rice flour which is the key success of the Kueh Tutu.

Don't worry if you don't get the texture right on the 1st trial, always starts with 1 cup of the flour to test out the recipe if you prefer. Happy trying and I hope to hear from your feedback too.