Puto Cake

I've been doing a lot of Puto variants but only now that I learned about this variant. I have made Puto, Puto Flan, and Puto Pao, and I may say that I can do them confidently (praise God) with less hassle. But I want to prepare something else, the whiter and softer one and so when my cousin taught me about this, it made me want to do it over and over again.

By the way, I learned about this during the quarantine period, tried and sold them when there are orders. So should I read about this blog a year after, I would be reminded that once, this recipe made a way for me to earn.

Ingredients:   

Batter:

- 3 cups Cake flour

- 3 tsp baking powder

- 3/4 cups white sugar

- 1 1/2 cups water

Meringue:

- 8 egg whites

- 3/4 cups white sugar

- 1 cup grated cheese

- 2 crushed salted eggs

You will need: 

- electric hand or stand mixer

- spatula

- steamer

- large size Puto Molder

- two mixing bowls

Procedure: 

Preparing the Batter:

- in a mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients of the batter 

- add water

- mix well to avoid lumps

- set aside

Doing the Meringue: 

- in another mixing bowl, put the egg whites

- using a mixer, mix the egg whites on the maximum speed

- when the egg whites start to become foamy, gradually add the sugar 

- continue mixing until all the sugar has been added and the texture has reached its soft peak stage

Combining the Batter and Meringue:

- start with adding 3 cups of Meringue into the Batter, patiently mix well so their colors turns one

- combine the remaining Meringue into the Batter making sure majority of the lumps are eliminated

- pour into the container

- steam for 5-6 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted

- remove from heat, cool down, enjoy :) 

Tips: 

- you may add more sugar depending on your preferred sweetness

- reaching the soft peak of the Meringue takes about some time, so patiently wait

- the number of minutes in steaming depends on the molder you use; if you are using a cake pan, steam it for 25minutes; if you are using small puto molder, steam for 5-6minutes instead

Ube Halaya

Ube is (my) another favorite from my Lola Dioneng's lists of foods she knows how to prepare, that we enjoy the most. Others call it Ube Halaya. It is made from boiled and mashed purple yam combined with condensed milk, evaporated milk, and sugar. 

 Ube

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to teach me how to cook any of her recipes :( and that made me search and ask until I found the taste that I used to eat during her time. There are a lot of recipes for Ube available online but I haven’t tried any of those. A friend previously prepared one but the one she prepared was not as the same taste as my Lola’s recipe.

Last week, Rose one of my friends here, prepared Ube and gave me a free taste. Upon tasting it, it was the same taste I was craving for – the same as my Lola’s recipe. So I asked her about the ingredients and how to cook it, and she told me so. I decided to lessen the amount of the ingredients a bit because this is my first time to cook. I’m afraid if I cook many, I might end up losing the ingredients huhu  

Ingredients:

- 1 medium size purple yam

- 1 medium size sweet potato

- 1 cup sugar

- ¾ butter

- ¾ can condensed milk (big can)

- ¾ can evaporated milk (big can)

- 1 tbsp glutinous rice flour

- 1 tsp red food color

- 1 tsp blue food color

The ingredients may seem different because not all ingredients are present here in the Middle East, but I repeat, this is the taste I’ve always enjoyed and wanted :) . The use of glutinous rice flour will make the Ube thick faster so to avoid continuous stirring. Red and Blue food colors will make purple since purple yam here is not really purple :). My combined yam and sweet potato make only less than ½ kilo that is why I reduced the amount of the milk ingredients. You can use one full can each for a kilo of both. 

Procedure:

- Peel and boil yam and sweet potato until good enough for mashing

- Remove from heat, mash after boiling, and set aside

- On a bowl combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, red and blue food color (you may always add or reduce to get your desired color), set aside

- On a cooking pan at low heat, melt the butter

- Add the milk and food color mixture

- Gradually pour in the sugar, mix until melted

- Add in the mashed yam and sweet potato

- Using a whisk, stir continuously until the milk mixture is fully absorbed by the mashed ingredients

- Gradually add in the glutinous rice flour (again this will help the Ube thick faster to refrain you from longer time of stirring)

- Remove from heat when your desired thickness has been achieved

- Transfer to a container, spread with margarine on top

- Cool down, refrigerate for some time, and enjoy :)

 

This may not be the taste others wanted but this is how I want the taste to be. I will always remember the taste of the foods my Lola prepared.

Duldol

Back in Cavite, my late Auntie Rosie used to cook this type of snack for us. I’ve been searching for the recipe of this on the net but could not find the taste that I used to enjoy. I learned from some blogs that this is a southern Philippines version of Maha Blanca. Tastes are different as Maha is sweeter than the Duldol I used to eat.

I reduced the sugar for this recipe so I came up with the taste I’ve wanted to eat.

Duldol

Ingredients:

- 1 cup cornstarch

- 12 tbsp coconut powder

- 4 ½ cups water

- ½ cup sugar

- 1 cup toasted desiccated coconut

Procedure:

- in a bowl, dissolve coconut powder in 4 cups of water, set aside

- in a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch in ½ cup of water, set aside

- in a pan, boil coconut mixture and sugar to blend

- add the cornstarch mixture, stir continuously until thick

- place in a serving container and top with toasted desiccated coconut

- serve and enjoy

Chocolate Suman

Wikipedia explains Suman as a rice cake originated from the Philippines, and is cooked using glutinous rice flour and coconut milk. Often wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for several minutes to hours. There are a lot of variants for this rice cake and is very common in the country. 

Others call this Suman Moron which is popular in Leyte, Philippines. This is made up of glutinous rice and chocolate. This is originally cooked while wrapped in banana leaves but because we do not have any, I opted to wrap it in foil and steamed. 

Chocolate Suman

Ingredients:

- 1 ½ cups rice flour

- ½ cup glutinous flour

- 1 ½ cups sugar

- 1 cup cocoa

- 1 cup water

Procedure:

- soak rice flour and glutinous flour with water

- add sugar and cocoa

- mix until well blended

- wrap in aluminum foil (or banana leaves)

- steam for 45 minutes or until texture becomes firm

Bibingka

I will always love every variant of Bibingka but this one is the one I like the most. 

 Bibingka using Glutinous Rice Flour

Ingredients

- 3 cups Glutinous Rice Flour

- 2 ½ cups white sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 14 oz coconut milk

- 5 large eggs

- 1 cup melted and cooled butter

- 1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:

- preheat oven to 350^o F

- combine glutinous rice flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl

- in a separate bowl, beat egg, mix coconut milk, melted butter, and vanilla

- gradually combine them all together

- pour in a pan and bake for 30mins to 1 hour

Champorado de Gata

Champorado is a sweet chocolate rice breakfast meal in the Philippines. This is made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder and sugar. This is normally boiled in low heat while continuously stirring to crush the rice grains making the cocoa powder be absorbed by them. Once cooked, it is normally added with milk to add more sweetness to it. Another variant of this meal is the use of coconut milk while cooking; in this case, milk is optional. This can be taken also as snack, others eat dried fish together with this. 

Champorado

Since I ran out of supply of the sticky rice, I only used plain rice instead. I just let the rice boil while stirring and crushing them. Also, I used coconut milk in this one.

Ingredients:

- 1 ½ cup rice

- 5 cups water (or more depending on your preference)

- ½ cup cocoa powder

- ¾ cup coconut milk diluted in water

- 1 cup of sugar

Procedure:

- wash rice twice

- combine rice with water and cook for 15minutes in medium heat

- check if the rice grains are already cooked, lower the heat

- while boiling, stir-crush the rice grains continuously until the desired texture is met

- gradually add cocoa powder and mix thoroughly with the rice mixture

- add sugar and mix well

- add coconut milk and mix well, let boil while stirring for another two minutes

- remove from heat and serve

Haleya

Back to my hometown and my paternal clan’s province, Cavite, during my younger years and as far as I can remember, whenever it’s time for All Soul’s day (or other holiday or special occasion), my grandmother used to cook Haleya, one of Filipino delicacies which is made of glutinous rice and coconut milk. What makes this different from the others is the presence of sweet tamarind. The combination of sweet and sour from the main ingredients isolates its taste from the other Filipino native delicacies.

 Haleya

Unfortunately, as of this writing, I could not find on the net the recipe of this delicacy so I asked my mother about the recipe and procedures in doing it. She did not give me the exact measurement so I had to estimate them. Good thing, I found the taste I used to eat from my estimated measurement. 

This delicacy is different from Ube Halaya which is common in different provinces. I'm not sure if this delicacy is only found in Cavite because friends of other provinces do not know this either.

Ingredients:

 

- 1 cup glutinous rice flour

- 1 cup water

- 1 cup coconut powder diluted in 1 cup of water

- 1 cup sugar

- 100g sweet tamarind

Procedure

- combine glutinous rice flour and water in a pan

- cook in low heat, stir continuously for 2 minutes

- gradually add coconut milk (coconut powder diluted in water) while stirring, stir continuously for another minute

-  gradually add sugar while stirring, stir continuously for 2 minutes

-  add sweet tamarind, stir continuously until texture becomes thick and hard to stir

-  remove from heat and enjoy

And in time for this All Souls' day, I prepared this recipe as I’m missing one important person in my life who used to cook this for us – our Lola Dioneng.

Kutsinta

Kutsinta is a sticky rice cake made of rice flour and lye water. It is normally colored brown because of the presence of brown sugar. It is one of my favorites among the native delicacies in the Philippines.

I only got the chance to cook Kutsinta during my vacation because lye water is hard to find in this country where I am now. But I was too busy so I was not able to write and post it here in my blog.

My daughter Destine loves this very much. :)

Kutsinta

Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup rice flour
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1 ½ tsp lye water
- 2 tsp annatto seeds (soaked in warm water)

Directions:
- combine rice flour, all purpose flour, and brown sugar
- add water gradually while mixing
- add lye water
- add annatto seeds
- place the mixture in molds
- steam for 40minutes

Best with grated coconut!

Puto Pao

I’ve been thinking of this as one of the varieties of Puto. I searched the net and found pork as the main ingredient but since I do not have pork here, I decided to twist a bit – again :). On break, I decided to experiment once more and tried this beef version of Puto Pao.

My Beef Puto Pao version

Ingredients:

Filling
- garlic
- 300gms ground beef
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- 18 pcs hard boiled quail eggs
- ½ cup cornstarch diluted in ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup water
- Salt to taste

Batter
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- 5 tsp baking powder
- 5 cups fresh milk
- 1 cup melted butter
- Cheese

Procedure:

Cook the Filling:
- boil quail eggs for 15 minutes, set aside
- on a pan, stir fry garlic for 2mins
- add pineapple juice, cook for 3mins
- add sugar and water, simmer for 15mins
- add the cornstarch diluted in water
- add in boiled egg
- remove from heat and set aside

Prepare the Batter:
- combine all purpose flour, sugar, and baking powder in a mixing bowl
- add fresh milk and the melted butter
- use a hand mixer to mix everything
- set aside

Cooking:
- get puto moulds and fill with the batter to about ¼ full
- put half of quail egg and a teaspoon of the filling
- fill with batter the puto mould until it covers the filling
- do for the rest of the puto moulds
- steam for 20 minutes
- top with cheese
- serve and enjoy!

Special Espasol

Espasol is known as one of those Philippine Sweet Delicacies which is made of rice flour and coconut milk. It is dusted with toasted rice flour and wrapped in either banana leaves or paper.

I normally see and buy Espasol whenever we go to the province of Laguna where it is originated. It is one of those ‘pasalubong’ which is sold by vendors who goes up any provincial bus and sells to passengers before (and sometimes during) the trip.
Special Espasol

Ingredients- 3 cups toasted glutinous rice flour
- ½ cup toasted sweet rice flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 cups coconut milk
- 1 ½ cups toasted grated coconut

Procedure- toast glutinous rice flour until color turns light brown
- on a separate pan, toast grated coconut until the color turns light brown
- again, on a separate pan toast sweet rice flour until color turns light brown
- get a new pan and pour in the coconut milk, bring to boil
- add sugar and stir for about 10 minutes- add grated coconut and stir for another 5 minutes- add glutinous rice flour and stir until thick- remove from heat and cool down- dust a clean flat surface with sweet rice flour- using a rolling pin, flatten the mixture to desired thickness (or thinness)





- divide the mixture into smaller parts







- roll to sweet rice flour




- cut a rectangular wax paper and wrap a piece





- do this until the rest are wrapped- serve and enjoy

Puto

Puto is a kind of steamed rice cake in the Philippines. It has different variations such as Putong Puti, Puto Bumbong, Puto Maya, Puto Pao, and others. Each variation is cooked differently; one may be sweeter than the others, another may be fluffier than the others, some people cook it with filling, some prepare it small and round, big and rectangular or triangular, etc., It may also be eaten in different ways such as eating it as is, adding grated coconut, top it up with cheese, or dip in Philippine’s one of the best Filipino dishes – dinuguan.

Among the mentioned variations, my favorite is the Putong Puti especially when it is dipped in Dinuguan.. yummy! :)

I’ve also tasted similar rice cake cooked by some Indian friends, it is called Idli (left). The fluffiness is almost the same as our Putong Puti but the texture and taste are different.

For now, I haven’t tried searching for Putong Puti’s recipe yet so let me instead give you the recipe of another variation of Puto – honestly I do not know what type of Puto is this – all I know is that it is medium in size, round, and sweet :). After several failed attempts in making Puto from some online websites, I got this recipe from Gaye – my flatmate here in Oman.

this Puto was prepared as a birthday gift for Elna :)

Ingredients:- 2cups all purpose flour
- 1cup white sugar
- 2tsp baking powder
- 2cups fresh milk
- 2 eggs
- 1cup melted butter (optional)

You will need:

- steamer

- Puto molds


Procedure:
- combine all dry ingredients
- add eggs
- add milk and butter
- put in puto molds
- steam for 25mins
- top with cheese
- enjoy and serve!

Best with Dinuguan and Hot Tea!

Credits: Junimar & Gaye Carayugan, Google Images for the You will need and other sample photos

Palitaw

Palitaw is a Filipino term, from the root word “litaw” which means float. Wikipedia defines Palitaw as a small flat sweet rice cake eaten in the Philippines.

During my childhood, whenever my grandmother cooks Ginataang Halo Halo (another Filipino dessert composed of different fruits combined with coconut milk), she sees to it to prepare Palitaw too. Palitaw is made of ground sticky rice.

Palitaw

I’ve been craving for this for long until one of my colleague’s wife – Noemi invited me over her place to eat. She taught me how to do it and the ingredients but since I’m not born a good cook, I still search for the recipe online and see to it to follow the measurement all the time. Nice move for beginner like me.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups glutinous rice flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup grated coconut
- ½ cup sesame seed
Procedure:
- combine flour and water
- mold 2tbsp to ball figure, flatten
- boil the flatten mold till floats
- combine sugar and sesame seed
- dip in coconut and serve!
When I uploaded the picture in Facebook, Herbert - one of my American FB friends said that it is also called Mochi – a Japanese rice cake which is one of Japan’s traditional food for the Japanese New Year.

This is best with Orange Juice!

Credits: Noemi Antonio, panlasangpinoy.com