Nyonya Kuih Bangkit - A traditional coconut cream cookies that's sought after for its melt-in-the-mouth texture and distinctive coconut fragrance. Making Kuih bangkit can be frustrating to some with unsatisfactory results unless you're a veteran baker doing this old school cookie. For today's bake, I'm using just one recipe with options of moulding, stamping or cutting out the cookies in various designs as shown in the photo.
RECIPE ADAPTED BY: BULL BULL
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Kuih Bangkit
Ingredient
200 gms Tapioca flour
200 gms Sago flour
4 pcs Pandan leaves, washed, wipe dry and cut into 5cm pieces
80 - 110 gms Icing sugar (See notes)
2 Egg yolks (I used 60-65 gms egg with shell)
120 ml Coconut cream/Thick Coconut milk without any added water
2 big pinches of fine salt
200 gms Sago flour
4 pcs Pandan leaves, washed, wipe dry and cut into 5cm pieces
80 - 110 gms Icing sugar (See notes)
2 Egg yolks (I used 60-65 gms egg with shell)
120 ml Coconut cream/Thick Coconut milk without any added water
2 big pinches of fine salt
Extra coconut cream/milk for later use
Method
Combine both flours and pandan leaves and put into a wok.
Using low heat, fry the flours with constant stirring till very light and the pandan leaves have dried up and turned crispy.
Transfer to a container, discard pandan leaves let it cool down completely.
Once cooled, cover it and leave set aside for several days before using.
On the day of baking, measure out 320 gms of the flour and sift it into a mixing bowl, making a well in the centre and set aside. (Keep aside the remaining flours for dusting mould etc)
Beat egg yolks and icing sugar in a small bowl with a hand whisk till the sugar is fully dissolved.
Stir in the coconut cream and mix well. Sieve it and pour 3/4 of the mixture into the center of the flour.
Using your hand, gently mix to achieve a firm and pliable dough (The mixture will turned mildly warm as you mix due to some chemistry reaction perhaps?)
Add in the balance of coconut mixture gradually till the dough is able to come together but slightly crumbly in appearance.
You need to use your judgement here....The specified amount of liquid was what I used, you might need more or less of it depending on how dry is your flour.
Keep in mind the dough should have a slightly crumbly texture.That's normal...It'll come together later as you gently give it a knead when forming the cookies.
Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and set aside while you prepare the baking sheets with baking paper.
Using low heat, fry the flours with constant stirring till very light and the pandan leaves have dried up and turned crispy.
Transfer to a container, discard pandan leaves let it cool down completely.
Once cooled, cover it and leave set aside for several days before using.
On the day of baking, measure out 320 gms of the flour and sift it into a mixing bowl, making a well in the centre and set aside. (Keep aside the remaining flours for dusting mould etc)
Beat egg yolks and icing sugar in a small bowl with a hand whisk till the sugar is fully dissolved.
Stir in the coconut cream and mix well. Sieve it and pour 3/4 of the mixture into the center of the flour.
Using your hand, gently mix to achieve a firm and pliable dough (The mixture will turned mildly warm as you mix due to some chemistry reaction perhaps?)
Add in the balance of coconut mixture gradually till the dough is able to come together but slightly crumbly in appearance.
You need to use your judgement here....The specified amount of liquid was what I used, you might need more or less of it depending on how dry is your flour.
Keep in mind the dough should have a slightly crumbly texture.That's normal...It'll come together later as you gently give it a knead when forming the cookies.
Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and set aside while you prepare the baking sheets with baking paper.
Now onto the cutting or moulding of the cookies...
Using cookie cutter:
Lightly flour your worktop and rolling pin with cooked flours.
Take a portion of the dough and roll it out using gentle even pressure to about 5-6 mm thick.
Flour cookie cutter and stamp out shapes of your choice.
You can choose to leave it plain or crimp patterns on top using a pair of serrated tweezer that's used for making traditional pineapple tarts and Kuih bangkit.
Arrange cookies in rows onto your baking sheets.
Take a portion of the dough and roll it out using gentle even pressure to about 5-6 mm thick.
Flour cookie cutter and stamp out shapes of your choice.
You can choose to leave it plain or crimp patterns on top using a pair of serrated tweezer that's used for making traditional pineapple tarts and Kuih bangkit.
Arrange cookies in rows onto your baking sheets.
Using Kuih Bangkit mould:
Lightly dust a Kuih bangkit mould with remaining cooked flours.
Take a small lump of dough and press into the design recesses of the mould.
Trim off excess dough with a butter knife or plastic scrapper.
Knock the mould against your worktop to dislodge cookies.
Arrange cookies in rows onto your baking sheets.
Take a small lump of dough and press into the design recesses of the mould.
Trim off excess dough with a butter knife or plastic scrapper.
Knock the mould against your worktop to dislodge cookies.
Arrange cookies in rows onto your baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated oven @ 160°C for about 20 - 25 minutes depending on the size of your cookies or until the bottom and sides of cookies are lightly browned.
Remove the cookies onto a wire rack to cool down completely before storing in an airtight container.
Remove the cookies onto a wire rack to cool down completely before storing in an airtight container.
Notes: (Any extra tips from all you seasoned Kuih Bangkit baker out there are more than welcome!)
Making Kuih Bangkit can be a rather frustrating feat to some unless you're a seasoned KB baker.
I've never feel the need to make it on my own as this task fell mainly to the women folks at my place and back then it wasn't my favourite cookies until recently.
Hoping to include this cookie in my Christmas cookie spread, I couldn't help but challenged myself in trying it out at least once. I couldn't get my bibik to give me an accurate recipe as they did it by feel and agak agak this and that 😰...I gave up and did some research before settling on one recipe I feel should work. I followed the recipe to the T but the cookie dough just doesn't seems right. It's kinda dry and very crumbly.I had to make adjustment to make it into a workable dough.
Thus I'm not going to mention the source as I don't want readers to think that it's a misguided recipe.
Now I'm going to share some insights to the best of my knowledge in making Kuih Bangkit.
The 3 main types of flour used are tapioca flour, sago flour or arrowroot flour commonly called 'lulu hoon' in Penang.
These flours which are in fact starches contained moisture and frying is the traditional way to aerate it as well as getting rid of the moisture to make it lighter and easier to absorb the liquid later.
Each family will have their own preference over the 3 types of flours. Whichever one you're using, you need to fry it before using or some folks will even use the oven for this step.
I think using a wok than a pan is easier to manipulate the stir frying without it flying all over your stovetop creating a snow scene.
Just gently lift and stir the flours with back and forth movements using a spatula. A good indicator when it's ready is when the pandan leaves turned dry, crispy and lost its vibrant green colour.
Immediately discard the pandan leaves after frying or else you're going to have a hard time getting rid of tiny bits and pieces later as the leaves are very brittle after frying.
As for the coconut milk, use freshly pressed ones if possible. No water is to be added to the grated coconut as water is the enemy of KB resulting in hard cookies. The same goes for egg whites. It's basically 90% water! So use only egg yolks.
When I did the KB dough with the exact recipe, the very crumbly texture had me in doubts as to whether: Will it work? Should I just quietly chuck it into the bin? Can I rescue it by adding extra coconut milk?
The answer is a resounding yes! I added tablespoon by tablespoon of extra coconut milk and the dough was finally able to come together with a bit of crumbling.
That is fine so do not attempt to add too much liquid as the dough will be sticky and you're going to have a hard time knocking out the cookie from the wooden mould.
Work with a small portion at a time, give the dough a slight knead till it's smooth and pliable before forming into shapes.
While shaping the cookies should the dough feels slightly dry in between rolling and cutting, add in a bit more coconut cream/milk and mix well before use. (I don't as I kept the dough covered with a damp tea towel)
As for sugar, if you're using only 80gms, this will give you cookies with just borderline sweetness.
However if you want a more fragrant cookie, stick with 110gms instead as the extra sugar will intensify the coconut flavour with just the right amount of sweetness.
Baked KB should be an off-white colour. Don't over baked them or you'll end up with crunchy cookies. Mild cracks on the cookies are also fine, it means the crumbs are tender.
When you pop one into your mouth, it should just shatter after you gave a gentle bite on the crispy exterior while the rest of the cookies should just melt away leaving you with a creamy and coconutty delight in your mouth.
I've never feel the need to make it on my own as this task fell mainly to the women folks at my place and back then it wasn't my favourite cookies until recently.
Hoping to include this cookie in my Christmas cookie spread, I couldn't help but challenged myself in trying it out at least once. I couldn't get my bibik to give me an accurate recipe as they did it by feel and agak agak this and that 😰...I gave up and did some research before settling on one recipe I feel should work. I followed the recipe to the T but the cookie dough just doesn't seems right. It's kinda dry and very crumbly.I had to make adjustment to make it into a workable dough.
Thus I'm not going to mention the source as I don't want readers to think that it's a misguided recipe.
Now I'm going to share some insights to the best of my knowledge in making Kuih Bangkit.
The 3 main types of flour used are tapioca flour, sago flour or arrowroot flour commonly called 'lulu hoon' in Penang.
These flours which are in fact starches contained moisture and frying is the traditional way to aerate it as well as getting rid of the moisture to make it lighter and easier to absorb the liquid later.
Each family will have their own preference over the 3 types of flours. Whichever one you're using, you need to fry it before using or some folks will even use the oven for this step.
I think using a wok than a pan is easier to manipulate the stir frying without it flying all over your stovetop creating a snow scene.
Just gently lift and stir the flours with back and forth movements using a spatula. A good indicator when it's ready is when the pandan leaves turned dry, crispy and lost its vibrant green colour.
Immediately discard the pandan leaves after frying or else you're going to have a hard time getting rid of tiny bits and pieces later as the leaves are very brittle after frying.
As for the coconut milk, use freshly pressed ones if possible. No water is to be added to the grated coconut as water is the enemy of KB resulting in hard cookies. The same goes for egg whites. It's basically 90% water! So use only egg yolks.
When I did the KB dough with the exact recipe, the very crumbly texture had me in doubts as to whether: Will it work? Should I just quietly chuck it into the bin? Can I rescue it by adding extra coconut milk?
The answer is a resounding yes! I added tablespoon by tablespoon of extra coconut milk and the dough was finally able to come together with a bit of crumbling.
That is fine so do not attempt to add too much liquid as the dough will be sticky and you're going to have a hard time knocking out the cookie from the wooden mould.
Work with a small portion at a time, give the dough a slight knead till it's smooth and pliable before forming into shapes.
While shaping the cookies should the dough feels slightly dry in between rolling and cutting, add in a bit more coconut cream/milk and mix well before use. (I don't as I kept the dough covered with a damp tea towel)
As for sugar, if you're using only 80gms, this will give you cookies with just borderline sweetness.
However if you want a more fragrant cookie, stick with 110gms instead as the extra sugar will intensify the coconut flavour with just the right amount of sweetness.
Baked KB should be an off-white colour. Don't over baked them or you'll end up with crunchy cookies. Mild cracks on the cookies are also fine, it means the crumbs are tender.
When you pop one into your mouth, it should just shatter after you gave a gentle bite on the crispy exterior while the rest of the cookies should just melt away leaving you with a creamy and coconutty delight in your mouth.
Thanks for taking the time to read the long post and as always...Have fun!
RECIPE ADAPTED BY: BULL BULL
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Bull%20Bull%20kuih%20bangkit&epa=SEARCH_BOX
RECIPE ADAPTED BY: BULL BULL
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Bull%20Bull%20kuih%20bangkit&epa=SEARCH_BOX