Puto is a steamed rice cake from the Philippines made from rice flour (galapong). Puto is often eaten for breakfast, served with coffee or hot chocolate. Some people also like to add grated coconut on top or eat it with dinugan, a meat stew dish. If you want to know how to make your own puto, start by reading Step 1.
Ingredients
- 4 cups rice flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 egg
- Cheese for topping
- Food coloring (optional)
- 1 tablespoon tapioca flour (optional)
Step
Step 1. Sift dry ingredients together
Sifting the rice flour, sugar and baking soda will help mix all the ingredients together, removing lumps and getting air in. Pour the ingredients into the bowl through the sieve, using a fork to make it easier to pass through the sieve. Mix the ingredients until smooth.
- If you don't have rice flour at home, you can use wheat flour, although it won't turn out as traditional as rice flour.
- If you're really serious about making puto, then you can mix the rice flour and water in a bowl, cover it and let it sit at room temperature overnight. If you want to make it, then mix about 0.5 kg of rice flour with 1 1/2 cups of water.
Step 2. Add butter, coconut milk, eggs and water, then mix until smooth
Use a wooden spoon, stirrer or mixer to mix all the ingredients together until smooth. If you don't have coconut milk, you can use liquid milk in half the amount of coconut milk, however, your puto won't have the traditional taste of using milk.
- If you want your puto to be stickier, you can add 1 tablespoon of tapioca flour to one dough.
- Although food coloring is not absolutely necessary to make puto, it can make puto more colorful. Commonly used colors for puto are lemon green, yellow or purple. If you want to make a variety of colors, you can even divide your dough into four parts, and apply 1-2 drops of food coloring to the 3 parts of the puto and leave the other part uncolored to create a pretty contrasting white.
Step 3. Pour the batter into a small cupcake mold or pan
If you're not using cupcake paper, you can coat the mold with butter to prevent it from sticking to the mold. You should fill the dough until the mold is almost full. This dough will bloom as it cooks, so you'll need to leave some room for it. Some people even say that the dough only needs to be filled up to three quarters of the mold.
Step 4. Place the cheese on top of the dough
Cut the cheese into small squares. If you're using regular cheese, then you'll need to put it in the mold before steaming it. But if you're using a fast-melting cheese, you can add it at the end of the steaming process, when there are only 2 minutes left. This is enough time to melt the cheese quickly.
Step 5. Prepare the steamer
Make sure you have put enough water in it and prepare it for cooking. You can cover it with cheesecloth to protect the mold and use a cloth to cover it. Or you just need to cover it with a lid with a regular pot lid. You can start preparing the steamer as you mix the ingredients to save time.
Step 6. Put the mold in the steamer and steam for 20 minutes
You can start checking the puto for doneness after 10 minutes. Once you can get a toothpick inside without bringing the dough out, your puto is ready. Remember to leave 2 minutes of cooking time for the cheese to melt quickly.
Step 7. Lift the puto from the spill
Give it a minute or two to cool beforehand. When you can touch the puto, you can arrange it on a serving plate.
Step 8. Serve
This dish is best served warm, so it's best to enjoy it right away. Puto can be eaten alone throughout the day, although some people prefer to eat it with coffee. You can also enjoy puto along with dinugan, a meat stew dish, if you like.
