Home-Made Kaya.
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.
Makes about 250g of kaya.
Ingredients
4 large eggs
120g palm sugar or caster sugar
250ml 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)
Method
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.
Now set up your “work station”.
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.
The printable version of this recipe is here -
Visit
Main Blog – Story of Bing
12 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- How To Make Kaya. | Story of Bing - [...] CLICK HERE for more photos, and for a step by step tutorial + recipe on how to make kaya. ...
Leave a Comment
RECIPE SEARCH
MOST POPULAR
wow! didnt know the ingredients are so simple.!
That is major commitment to your craft! Respect! And your kaya looks absolutely delicious, the golden types that I love. The commercialised green ones that are lumpy and thick are just sad interpretations of our local classic.
Wish I could have some!
Thank you sooo much for this recipe! I also didnt know it was so easy to make. I’ll try this soon.
hi there! how do i know if the kaya is spoilt before 5 days? I’m intending t make this but im afraid that i wont be able to finish it.
Hi Emilie, if the kaya is spoilt, it will taste sour (rancid). It’s too much hard work to make a small batch of this. So I suggest you make a normal batch and then give some away to your family and friends. Good things must be shared! =)
hi Karen,
how to make the pandan kaya version?
best regards…
oops!! i overlook the procedure.. its there..thanks!
Looks like you have an excellent texture for your kaya. When you were stirring your kaya, were there any lumps whatsoever at all?
No lumps at all because I really did stir CONTINUOUSLY for 3 hours. Haha..
What is the main reason for placing the bowl over the boiling water to get it cook? Can we use very small fire and cook the kaya in a pot ?
The heat is not gentle enough if it’s direct and you run the risk of burning the mixture.
love your wide kitchen.