Water Chestnut cake is a kind of Chinese dessert, steamed cake. It is also one of my favorite dim sums and Chinese New Year food.
What I like about it is the sweetness and freshness of the water chestnut. It’s not so sweet that it makes you feel too much, but it’s more subtle. Especially after having all those big meals with all kinds of greasy and delicious food, the water chestnut cake just comes at the right moment to give your palette a different taste.
The ingredients and method of making it so super simple. But the key to success is when you mix the sugar syrup and the water chestnut flour mix together, it needs to be at the right temperature. If not, the cake won’t form and you will just have a dish of water chestnut liquid.
Some people like to have it just like that after the steaming, but personally, I really like it when it’s pan-fried, especially if they are a little bit burnt and crispy, that’s to be the best kind of water chestnut cake. I also hate it when the water chestnut cake is too sweet and taste nothing other than sugar! So I like the sweetness in our recipe below, it’s sweet enough, but not too much.
And if you wonder, Mr. 197 likes this dish as well! There are some other Chinese “cake” that I like but he doesn’t, this is the one he actually likes the most! So give it a try if you wonder how it tastes, it’s yummy!
Water chestnut cake
Ingredients
- 250 g Water chestnut flour
- 8-10 Water chestnut Prefer fresh ones, but canned ones will work too
- 80 g Rock Sugar 冰糖
- 120 g Chinese Slab Sugar (brown sugar bar) 片糖
- 1300 mL Water 650+650
Instructions
- Slice half of the water chestnuts into small pieces, and smash the other half. Put aside for later use.
- Dissolve the water chestnut flour with 650mL water. Add the water gradually, and keep stirring until everything dissolves.
- Sieve the water chestnut mix two times, try to dissolve the residue at the bottom as much as possible.
- In a small pot, add the rock sugar and Chinese slab sugar. Pour 650mL of water. Heat it up and melt the sugar. Stir and mix well.
- Add 2 ladles of the water chestnut mix to the sugar mix. Remember to mix the water chestnut mix before using it each time. Keep mixing. Add another 2 ladles and keep mixing.
- Remove the small pot from heat and pour the whole mix to the water chestnut mix. Keep mixing until no big lumps.
- Pour the mix back to a pot. Add the water chestnuts, heat it up with low heat. Keep stirring and mixing for 5 mins.
- Brush some oil on the container which you plan to use for steaming. Pour the mixture into it. Spread it out evenly.
- I use a wok to steam my food. So put some water in the wok, leave it on high heat. When the water is boiling, put the water chestnut cake in. Steam for 30-35mins.
- Once it's done, leave it to cool down completely.
- Either enjoy it like that or pan-fry it as you like!