14 Nov 10 (Sun) - Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花红豆布丁) & Coconut Candy (椰子糖)

Initially wanted to cook Abok-Abok Sagu (Sago Cake) over the weekend but my sis suggested going to pray to my folks in Mandai and so decided to spend the weekend at her place after praying. Since I was at her place, I decided to try out the Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花红豆布丁) recipe found in Do What I Like food blog and the Coconut Candy (椰子糖) recipe in one of my cook books.

Started cooking only around 10am coz I wanted to borrow the electronic weighing scale, the vanilla essence and the food coloring from sis's SIL. Didn't manage to borrow the electronic weighing scale coz it was spoiled and discarded. So had to do the Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花红豆布丁) based on estimation.

Dried Osmanthus Flowers and Red Beans

Swallow Globe Agar-Agar Powder (White) and Bake King Gelatine

Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花红豆布丁)

Ingredients (Red Bean Layer):

420g red beans

600ml red bean water

150g fine sugar

30g gelatin powder

12g agar-agar powder

Method:

1.  Soak red beans overnight. Cook till soft, drain and reserve 600ml red bean water for use later

2.  Add sugar, agar-agar powder into red bean water and cook till sugar dissolved

3.  Add gelatine powder and drained red beans, stir to mix well

4.  Cool the whole pot of mixture in cold water

5.  Pour cooled mixture into 3 or 4 15cm x 10cm x 6cm container and let it cool futher

6.  Chill in the refrigerator for 30min before topping them with the Osmanthus layer

Ingredients (Osmanthus Layer):

3 tbsp dried osmanthus flowers

450ml water

150g fine sugar

22.5g gelatine powder

Method:

1.  Boil water in a pot, add in sugar and dried osmanthus flowers and stir till sugar dissolved

2.  Stir in the gelatine powder till well mixed and leave aside to cool

3.  Pour the osmanthus mixture onto the chilled red bean layer and refrigerate till set

Coconut Candy (椰子糖)

Ingredients:

500g grated coconut

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp coloring

Method:

1.  Mix coconut with sugar and milk in a pan. Cook over low fire for about 45mins, stirring all the time so the mixture doesn't burn

2.  Once mixture is dry and sticky - you know this when it becomes difficult to continue stirring - add vanilla essence and desired coloring. Stir for another 3-5mins until color is even

3.  Press into a 30cm tray 2-3cm thick and leave to cool. Cut into 3cm or larger squares

The Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花红豆布丁) didn't turn out too bad though I felt that the red bean layer is too thick while the osmanthus layer is too thin. Also the red bean didn't seem soft enough. Perhaps next time will need to adjust the red bean to osmanthus ratio so that both will be more even and cook the red bean longer. The jelly made using gelatine powder has a softer texture than those made using the konnyaku powder and personally I prefer konnyaku powder which gives a firmer texture. Perhaps next time I can try using konnyaku powder instead.

As for the coconut candy (椰子糖), it wasn't too bad either just that I didn't press the mixture hard enough and so when I cut the candy, some of the coconut actually broke off and crumpled.

----- edited on 16 November 2010 -----

Feedback from my group of tasters:
1.  The red bean layer was too thick and the red bean was not soft enough.
2.  The osmanthus jelly layer was not sweet enough.
3.  The coconut candy was a bit too sweet and dry.
4.  The coconut candy was not compressed hard enough.