Home-Made Kaya

Photo: Bing

Ingredients

4 large eggs

120 grams palm sugar or caster sugar

250 milliliters thick coconut cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

A couple of pandan (screwpine) leaves (I omitted this because it wasn’t available in my location)

Preparation

Get a full saucepan of water boiling.

Crack 4 eggs into a bowl.

Beat the eggs till the yolks and whites are well combined.

Strain the egg mixture to remove any lumps or impurities. This will give you a silky smooth egg mixture.

Add 120g of palm sugar or regular caster sugar in a separate large glass or metal bowl.

Make sure that this bowl can fit snugly on top of the saucepan of boiling water.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. This is unorthodox, but I like vanilla extract in everything sweet.

Place the bowl of sugar over the saucepan of boiling water. Ideally it should sit snugly in it. Stir the sugar as it melts.

If the water starts to sputter at the edges, stick a satay stick between the bowl and the saucepan to allow some steam to escape.

When the sugar is a soft golden colour, add 250ml of coconut cream. Stir well to combine.

Heat the coconut-sugar mixture till it thickens slightly. Then add in the egg mixture slowly, stirring continuously.

The mixture will now look like this. It’s very liquid in texture. At this point, if you have pandan leaves, tie the leaves into a knot and place in the mixture.

Keeping the saucepan of water boiling furiously, stir the coconut milk and egg mixture continuously.

DO NOT STOP STIRRING.

After approximately one hour, the mixture will start to thicken.

Remove the pandan leaves from the mixture, if you had added some earlier. Shake off as much of the jam as possible.

Add a pinch of salt. I like salt in everything sweet. It lifts the flavours.

Continue stirring. It could take another hour or two.

When the kaya has thickened to a jam consistency, it is done. Keep in mind that it will thicken as it cools. And thicken some more when placed in the fridge to chill.

Serve on toasted or steamed bread. Best eaten with thin slices of cold butter.

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About

Kaya toast is one of Singapore’s most popular breakfast food. It’s also often eaten as a tea time snack today.

Making your own kaya requires very simple ingredients, but needs alot of patience and time as it involves several hours of continuous stirring. Be diligent in the stirring and the result is a very smooth silky kaya jam.

Serve on toasted or steamed bread. Best eaten with thin slices of cold butter.

Home-made kaya can keep well for up to 5 days in the fridge, but it usually won’t last that long.

A step by step tutorial on how to make kaya is here -
http://www.storyofbing.com/2011/05/how-to-make-kaya/