Sweet Osmanthus Steamed Rice Cake (Pak Thong Gou)

Ever since I unlock the secret of this ever so challenging Pak Thong Gou (Well... I am not really exaggerating here, many of my net friends attempt to make this monster and failed miserably, some already declared Pak Thong Gou as their biggest shame on culinary journey!)

I can't help thinking of creating a brown rice version of this cake, not just to make it a little healthier, also to find a way to use my ever so lasting organic Basmati brown rice... Don't get me wrong! I do love the feel and smell of soaked brown rice.. its earthy and so authentic!

Ingredients：（For 8 Inches Bamboo Steamer）
300 gm Brown Rice （Basmati or Jasmine, is OK to use white rice）
180 gm sugar/brown sugar
Water
1 tsp instant yeast （ or 80 gm fermented rice 酒酿）
1 tbsp Dried Sweet Osmanthus (桂花）

Note：If you want to make this using rice flour, use 300 gm of rice flour and 450 gm of water to form a consistent batter.




Wash and soaked brown rice overnight, the rice should be completely submerged in water.

The next day,weigh soaked rice WITH water and measure to 750 gm (add or remove water to reach the desire weight). Grind the rice with water into a smooth batter, I use my reliable Vitamix. This will take about 2-3 minutes to grind, you might want to stop in between to cool the machine.

When the batter is done, add 180 gm of sugar into mixer, blend well.

Pour the batter into a microwavable bowl/utensil.

Cook the batter As below：



Note：The cooking process depends on wattage of your microwave, so add or reduce time accordingly to get the Pancake batter-like consistency as shown in the video.


Let cold the batter, at the same time, mix 1 tsp of instant yeast with 2 tbsp of warm water, when "cloud" form on top, it is ready, it should take about 5-10 mins.

Mix batter with yeast, cover with cling film and leave it at warm place for 4-6 hours, if the temperature is low, add 1-2 hours.

Note：If you want to use fermented rice as starter, just add 80 gms of fermented rice and leave it at warm place for 18-20 hours until bubble formed on the surface of batter.




When you see bubbly texture on the surface of batter (as shown in picture below), and smell slightly sourish, the batter is ready.


Note：If the batter smell too sourish, just add 1/2 tsp of baking powder to reduce sourness.



Sprinkle 1 tbsp of sweet Osmanthus, mix well. wet a piece of muslin cloth, lay it in the bamboo steamer, pour in fermented batter, leave it aside for 15 minutes.

Bring the water in a wok/cooker to boil.



When the water starts boiling, steam the cake at high heat for 30 minutes, DO NOT open the lid in between.


Note：use the bamboo steamer's cover to cover the batter for steaming to avoid steam dripping back to the batter, if you do not have the bamboo steamer cover, just wrap any lid fit to the wok/cookware with a piece of clean cloth to serve the same purpose.



When its done steaming, remove from cooker, and let cold completely.


Note：You should wait till the cake completely cold down before cutting it.

中文版，For Chinese，Click --> 自磨米浆桂花白糖糕