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Kueh tutu
Kueh tutu: little flower-shaped steamed rice flour cakes filled with peanut or coconut, served on pandan
Pushcart sellers at Tanjong Katong and the old kampungs once made kueh tutu to order, and a few stalls in Queenstown and at Chinatown Complex still do: loose, fragrant rice flour is packed into small flower-shaped wooden moulds around a spoon of sweet ground peanut or brown-sugar coconut, steamed for barely three minutes on a cloth, then tipped onto a square of pandan leaf. Bite in and the white crumb dissolves, light and powdery-soft, around the crunchy or sticky centre. They are an afternoon snack, sold by the half-dozen and eaten warm on the spot. The usual mistake is making the rice flour too wet; it should feel like damp sand that just holds when squeezed, or the cakes turn dense and gummy. Chef's tip: toast the rice flour in a dry pan first and cool it; the cakes smell nuttier and the crumb steams up lighter.
- Total time
- 65 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
For the rice flour
- 9 oz fine rice flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup wateradd gradually
For the peanut filling
- 1 ¾ oz sugar
For the coconut filling
- 2 ⅛ oz palm sugar (gula melaka) or dark brown sugarchopped
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 pandan leafknotted
To serve
- 6 pandan leavescut into 5 cm squares or lengths
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What you'll need
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Method
0/10 doneStep 1: Toast 9 oz fine rice flour in a dry wok over a low heat for 6–8 minutes, stirring constantly, until it smells faintly nutty but hasn't coloured. Spread on a tray to cool completely.
8 minStep 2: Grind 3 ½ oz roasted peanuts, skins removed and 1 ¾ oz sugar in short pulses to coarse crumbs, like breadcrumbs. Stop before it turns into peanut butter.
Step 3: Cook 3 ½ oz freshly grated or frozen coconut, 2 ⅛ oz palm sugar (gula melaka) or dark brown sugar, 2 tbsp water and 1 pandan leaf in a small pan over a low heat for 6–8 minutes, stirring, until the sugar melts and the coconut is sticky and dark brown, but not wet. Cool and remove the pandan.
8 minStep 4: Mix the cooled flour with ¼ tsp salt. Sprinkle in ½ cup water a spoonful at a time, rubbing with your fingertips, until it looks like damp sand that holds together when squeezed but crumbles when poked.
Step 5: Push the flour through a medium sieve to break up lumps and aerate it. Cover with a damp cloth.
Step 6: Set a steamer going over a medium-high heat and line the rack with a damp muslin cloth.
Step 7: Loosely fill a small kueh tutu mould (or a 5–6 cm tart tin) halfway with flour. Make a dip in the middle with your finger and add 1 tsp of filling, then top up with more flour and level gently with a palette knife without pressing hard.
Step 8: Cover the mould with a small square of muslin, turn it out onto the steamer cloth and lift the mould away. Repeat, spacing the cakes 2 cm apart.
Step 9: Steam for 3–4 minutes, until the cakes look matte and set and a light touch leaves no mark. Oversteaming makes them hard.
4 minStep 10: Lift each cake with its cloth and slide it onto a piece of 6 pandan leaves. Serve warm, a mix of peanut and coconut on each plate.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 330 kcal
- Protein
- 7 g
- Carbs
- 58 g
- Fat
- 9 g
- Fibre
- 3 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does kueh tutu take?
- About 65 minutes in total: 40 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 6 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegan?
- Yes. It has no meat, fish, dairy or eggs.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
- What can I use instead of palm sugar (gula melaka) or dark brown sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
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