I was born and raised in a small city in Sichuan, China. In Sichuan, the brown sugar glutinous rice cake is very popular. Everybody loves it. When I was young, I still remember an older man with a white beard selling glutinous rice cakes at the gate of my primary school. I can not help but want to buy it every time after school. But my mother would not let me buy it because she thought the cakes selling on the street had too much sugar in them, and the sugar would cause my tooth decay. But during the summer vacation, my mom will make me some brown sugar glutinous rice cakes at home as a reward for completing a semester's study. But after I came to the United States, I cannot find any restaurant in Ann Arbor that has rice cakes on its menu. So, I asked for a recipe from my mom and cooked it myself. The recipe here is the one my mom gave me, and it is pretty simple, but the cake is delicious!
Ingredients ( for 1-2 people):
150g Glutinous rice flour
120g Hot water
40g Brown sugar
200g Pure water
100g Soybean
30g White sugar
0.5 cup of vegetable oil
The very first step is to make some soybean powder. After washing the soybeans, let them air dry or wipe them dry with kitchen paper towels. Put them in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.
After taking them out from the oven, put them in your blender and add the 30g white sugar. Grind them into powder. The soybean powder is done!
The second part is to make the cake dough: Pour the 120g hot water into the bowl with 150g glutinous rice flour. After stirring with chopsticks, knead it with your hands to form a smooth dough.
Divide this dough into fifteen small doughs of almost the same size and then knead each small dough into a strip.
Pour the oil into the pan and fry these strips of dough in the pan over medium heat until the surface is crispy and turns slightly yellow.
Brown sugar and water are boiled together into a syrup.
The last part is to add flavor to the cake: Sprinkle soybean powder on the surface of the rice cake, then pour the brown sugar syrup evenly on the cake.
All done and enjoy the cake!
NOTES:
The amount of white sugar in the soybean powder and brown sugar syrup can be varied according to your personal taste.
It’s best to eat the cake when it’s just made.
Store any uneaten cake in the fridge.
Written by Yaoqi Liao
Summer Orientation Peer Advisor
Graduate Student
China
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