Steamed sweet glutinous rice 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 (if you prefer your cake very stickily, replace this with glutinous rice flour)
• 1 cup of light coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Homemade syrup

• 1 cup of boiling water
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• a few thinly sliced piece of ginger, julienned
• 3 cardamom, spited in half 

Topping – peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut

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

Method

• Homemade syrup – in a saucepan, bring 1 cup of boiling water to boil, add salt, dark brown sugar, ginger and cardamom; stir until the sugar is fully dissolved; drain the liquid through a sieve, discard the solids; set aside to cool
• In a mixing bowl, mix glutinous flour, rice flour, coconut milk, homemade syrup, ground cinnamon
• Line a cake tin with cling wrap; pour the batter into the tin; steam in a steamer for approximately 30 minutes; Time required will depend on the thickness of the cake; insert a skewer into the cake to make sure it comes out clear
• Cool completely before cutting into thin slices with a knife dusted with the topping
• Dust all sides of each slice with a mixture of peanut, sesame seeds, sugar and coconut (this will stop them from sticking together)

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