Water Chestnut Cake

 

I made this for chestnut cake for Chinese New Year because my mom wanted some. I couldn’t find fresh chestnuts so used canned sliced water chestnuts.

 Water Chestnut Cake (Chinese New Year Recipe) | Christine's Recipes: Easy Chinese Recipes | Delicious Recipes (christinesrecipes.com)

 

Ingredients:

600 ml water

100 gm water chestnut flour (Pan Tang Guangzhou 廣州泮塘特產)

2 tsp / about 6 gm cornflour / corn starch (used corn starch)

2 tsp oil

50 gm white sugar

50 gm brown sugar slab (冰片糖), finely chopped (used 60 grams brown sugar)

8 water chestnuts, fresh, frozen or canned, roughly chopped (used 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts)

 

Method:

1)     Grease the pan with a little of oil in order to help remove the cake from it at ease.

2)     Dissolve the water chestnut flour with 300 ml of water and cornflour completely. Drain through a fine sieve. Stir in 2 teaspoons of oil. Set aside.

3)     Put the other 300 ml of water, together with white sugar, chopped brown sugar into a deep pot. Cook until the sugar dissolves completely. Bring it to boil. Add the water chestnuts. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the dissolved water chestnut flour mixture. Immediately stir to combine well into a thick but smooth batter. Make sure not to let the batter stick to the bottom.

4)     Pour the batter into the greased pan. Use a teaspoon, wet with some water, to level the surface. Cover with foil and steam in a wok or steamer, for about 30 to 35 minutes (steamed 35-40 min), or until the cake turns translucent, or an inserted needle comes out clean. Remove from the wok and let cool a bit. Remove the cake from pan and slice into pieces. Serve warm immediately. Or pan fry slices before serving. The leftover can be kept in fridge, covered, for up to a week or so. (did not pan-fry cake)

 

Notes：

·        The chilled water chestnut cake will turn a bit harder and opaque. When it’s reheated, it turns to be soft and translucent again.

·        The cornflour can help produce better and firmer texture to hold it shape nicely.

·        If you like the cake darker in colour, you can replace the white sugar with brown sugar slab. Or if you like your cake looks in a white colour, use all white sugar then.

·        I followed my mother-in-law's advice and used the Pan Tang Guangzhou's water chestnut flour. She said it's the best to make this cake.