Steamed sweet cake ‘nian gao’ (年糕) with coconut milk and ginger

A traditional dessert for Chinese New Year with a chewy and sticky texture.

‘Gao’ has the same pronunciation as ‘high’. ‘Nian’ means ‘year’. So ‘nian gao’ is symbolic for ‘every year a greater success’.  This puts ‘nian gao’ on the must-have list for Chinese New Year.

If you like it looking fancy, dust the cake with a mixture of peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar and desiccated coconut.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of glutinous rice flour (sticky rice flour), it is gluten free
• 1 cup of rice flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup of light coconut milk
• 1 cup of boiling water
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 4 tsp maple syrup (optional)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 thinly sliced piece of ginger (optional)
• 3 cardamom, spited in half  (optional)

Method

• Pour 1 cup of boiling water over salt, ginger, cardamom and brown sugar; stir until the sugar is fully dissolved; drain the liquid through a sieve, discard the solids.
• In a mixing bowl, mix glutinous flour, rice flour, coconut milk, sugar liquid, maple syrup, ground cinnamon; mix well.
• Line a cake tin with cling wrap; pour the batter into the tin.

• Steam in a steamer for 30-50 minutes depending on the thickness of the cake.
• Cool completely before cutting with a wet knife.
• Dust with a mixture of peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut if desired.

Mixture of peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut is made up of:

• 1/3 cup crushed peanuts, lightly toasted
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds, lightly toasted
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 2/3 cup desiccated coconut, lighted toasted

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