HOMEMADE CHINESE NEW YEAR CAKE (NIAN GAO)

Ingredients

900g glutinous rice flour

750g sugar

900 ml hot water

Orange zest (from 3-4 oranges)

Method

• In a large saucepan melt the sugar by stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves and turns golden brown.  Do not caramelized sugar until dark as this will make your nian gao taste bitter. This procedure may take some of your precious time. So,  please be patient!

• Gradually add hot or cold water and be very careful as the volume of the mixture will expand quickly. Don't take the risk of burning yourself! You will also notice lumps of sugar crystals.  No worries!  
• Keep stirring until remaining sugar crystal dissolves
• Next, remove from stove and let syrup cool down completely (the syrup can be prepared a day before)

• Add the cold syrup to the glutinous rice flour little by little and whisk until there is no lumps.  The mixture should be smooth.

• Strain mixture through a sieve to make sure no lumps remained.

• Finally add orange zest and give a good stir.

• Pour mixture into round cake mould. Do not fill the mould completely and leave some space because the mixture will expand on cooking.  Personally, we prefer using ramekins like in the picture below.  But it is important to oil it first as we don’t use any banana leaves or plastics as lining.

• Gently tap the mould against your countertop to get rid of air bubbles or use a toothpick.
• Next, cover the ramekins with tin foil.

• Fill steamer with enough water and let it boil.  Then place the ramekins and steam on medium low heat for around 2 hrs depending on how big and thick the cakes are.  Ours took 2hrs
• Remove from steamer and allow to cool down at room temperature.  Then, you can keep the cake in the refrigerator. The next day you can remove the cake using a spatula to gently pull the cake away from the bottom of the mold. Then you can wrap the Nian gao with cling film and refrigerate again. They are best to eat after 2-3 days.  To be honest, we ate it the next day.  It was a bit soft but really yummy.  We also love the taste of orange peels..😛It was irresistible.

Hope you will enjoy and try this recipe.  If you have any questions feel free to comment.  We will be glad to assist you. For more fun, please refer to our YouTube video.

Tips:

1. Since it takes two hours to steam the nian gao, check the level of water in the pot occasionally to ensure there is enough water for steaming. As our steamer is big enough, we have filled it with enough water,  high enough to complete 2hrs steaming so that it does not dry off too quickly. So there was no need for us to add water in the steamer again.