Banh Hong (Binh Dinh Chewy Coconut Rice Cake), Sweetened with Monk Fruit
Sweets and drinksSteamed CakesVietnamAbout 30 minutes of cooking, not counting 8 hours of soaking the rice and several hours of pressing the dough
Banh hong from Binh Dinh is chewy and flecked with strands of coconut. The hardest stage is the dough, since the glutinous rice soaks for 8 hours and then has to be pressed until all the water is out. The grated coconut is steeped with the sweetener, then cooked until the strands turn translucent.
Tapioca starch is dry roasted with pandan leaf until the leaf is crisp and the starch is loose and fragrant, and that becomes the dusting flour. The rice dough is flattened thin before it goes into the sweet syrup so it cooks evenly all the way through.
This batch weighs about 3.7kg, at roughly 159 calories per 100g.
Method
Soak 1kg nep ngu glutinous rice for at least 8 hours, ideally overnight. Grind the rice very fine, then put it in a cloth bag and weigh it down to press out the water. After a few hours you have a firm block of dough, and a little water can go back in so it binds and holds a shape.
Set a dry pan over the heat and add 200g tapioca starch. Wash and drain 3 pandan leaves, cut them into 7 to 8cm lengths and add them to the pan. Roast over very low heat, stirring, until the starch is cooked. Once the pandan leaves are crisp and the starch is loose and fragrant, take the pan off the heat and remove the leaves. This is the dusting flour.
Steep 400g grated coconut with 270g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend for 30 minutes. Once it has dissolved, set the pan over the heat and cook until the coconut strands turn translucent and the liquid has gone.
Set a deep pan over the heat, bring 1.2 liters of water to a boil and add the remaining 630g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend to dissolve. Once the syrup boils, flatten the rice dough into thin pieces and drop them in. As the dough cooks, break it up with a spatula and keep stirring and pressing until it comes together into a smooth, pliable mass, keeping the heat low to medium throughout.
Add all the cooked coconut and stir it through with two spatulas until combined. Once the dough stops sticking to the pan, wind it onto the two spatulas and hold it over low heat, winding as you go, so it dries evenly.
When the dough feels heavy and the surface is dry, tip it into a tray already dusted with the roasted starch. Spread it out and dust more starch over the top. Wait for it to cool, then cut it into bite sized squares with scissors.
Tips
Flatten the dough into thin pieces before dropping it into the syrup, so it cooks evenly from the inside out.
Toast the dusting flour until the pandan leaf is dry and crisp for a proper aroma, since undertoasted flour tastes raw and gives the cake a harsh note.
Press the rice dough for a few full hours until it is properly dry, because wet dough stays slack and will not wind.
Roast the dusting starch until it is completely loose before scattering it, and the cake sticks to neither hands nor tray.
Cut the cake with scissors once it has cooled, since a knife picks up dough and makes cutting difficult.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.