Sunday, June 22, 2014

RECIPE | Pandan Honeycomb Cake (Banh Bo Nuong)

Guess what guys? I'm about to post a semi-failed recipe. Bánh Bò Nướng is another chewy (pandan optional) Vietnamese snack/dessert. Its most distinguishing feature is its honeycomb-like texture...which I unfortunately failed to reproduce here :( It was still delicious, however, so I decide to share the recipe with you anyway along with some tips in the hopes that one of you will have luck making this! This recipe is from my Chinese tutor's father, who worked as a Vietnamese pastry chef in France.

*Note: I was making a double batch when I took photos, so don't flip out if your ingredients are significantly less!

Honeycomb-less honeycomb cake? :(
Pandan Honeycomb Cake (Bánh Bò Nướng)

Ingredients

(Serves 8-10)


*Measurements are originally weighed for accuracy, but I've converted them to US cups to the best of my ability for you guys if you don't have a scale*

(1) 380 g eggs (about ~6 medium sized eggs)
(2) 1/2 tsp salt
(3) 1 tsp pandan extract (optional)
(4) 1 tsp vanilla extract
(5) 1/2 tsp coconut oil/butter for greasing the pan
(6) 220 g / 1 cup sugar (I used brown)
(7) 18 g / a little over 1 tsp of single acting baking powder (Very important to not just pick any old baking powder which is typically double acting!)
(8) 150 g / a little over 1 cup tapoica flour/starch
(9) 300 ml coconut milk

Steps


1. Grease your cake pan (a round 9" is best) with butter or coconut oil. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees and heat up your cake pan inside.

2. In a saucepan combine coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Heat and stir to dissolve completely. Let cool.

3. In another bowl combine eggs, vanilla extract, and pandan extract (optional). Mix lightly with a fork. Avoid overmixing because that will flatten your cake. (Remember, you're going to have a lot less eggs because I doubled my recipe!)

4. Sift in the tapioca flour and baking powder into the egg mixture. Stir lightly to combine.


5. When cool, pour your coconut milk/sugar mixture into the egg mixture. Whisk lightly to combine.

6. Sieve mixture through a mesh strainer into your heated cake pan. If sufficiently hot, the pan should sizzle!

7. Bake at 350 F degrees for half an hour. To test that the insides are completely cooked, stick a toothpick in the middle. It should come out sticky but firm, not liquid-y. Once cooked, lower the oven temperature to 180 F degrees and bake until crust is dark brown, but not burnt (about 20 minutes). You're looking for a dark honey or caramel color.

8. Let cool, cut into wedges, and serve.

The texture should be very squishy and bouncy, with significantly darker crust layer. Your insides (unlike mine) should produce a honeycomb-like texture, with many holes and strings. Mine didn't come out right texture-wise but it was still delicious! I'm definitely going to try this again to achieve the honeycomb effect and will post an update when I do!

Let me know if you decide to try it and if you got the elusive honeycomb texture!

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE this!! I can't wait to try. What exactly is Pandan?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! Thanks for dropping by :) Pandan is a plant! Its flavor comes from extracting the leaves of the Pandan plant and its flavor is somewhat like a mixture of vanilla and coconut. Hope that helped!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...