WHAT’S a Filipino Christmas celebration without lots of delicious kakanin (native delicacies)? Puto Bumbong, Bibingka… We’ve given you recipes of festive twists on these classic Pinoy holiday classics. Now, we share with you the recipe of yet another top favorite kakanin of all time not only during Christmas but also when there’s no occasion at all — Putong Puti. But even with your classic Putong Puti, you can make lots of exciting variations by incorporating different flavors and then tingeing the steamed rice cake with a bit of food color to go with its flavor. Then again, you can stick to your timeless Putong Puti and just put fillings or toppings on it to create something new and festive for the rest of the holidays.
Here’s a recipe from The Maya Kitchen showing how different ready-to-eat ingredients can be used for instant but impressive puto variations.
3 tsps. yeast
3/4 cup water
2 cups sifted Maya Cake Flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
itlog na maalat (salted egg), as needed
ube jam, as needed
chocolate spread, as needed
cheese spread, as needed
1. Prepare a steamer. Then lightly grease two pieces of 3oz. 12-hole muffin pans and line them with paper cakes. Set aside.
2. Dissolve yeast in water.
3. Combine flour, 1 cup sugar and baking powder. Add the dissolved yeast to the dry ingredients and mix together. Set aside.
4. In a bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1/4 cup sugar, and continue beating until stiff. Fold in yeast mixture.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans, allow to ferment for 10 to 20 minutes. Top some with salted egg slices or cubes, a few muffins with ube jam, some others with chocolate spread and the remaining ones with cheese spread.
6. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes.
Yields 24 to 30 pieces.
