Pumpkin Bingka

I am not a fan of pumpkin but my daughter loves it so much especially sayur manis and pumpkin in coconut milk stew, as she called it. Sayur manis is native to Sabah and it is regularly labelled as 'Sabah Veg'. 

Baking with pumpkin can be as easy as going to the grocery store and buying a can of pumpkin purée. In this part of the world, pumpkin is very cheap. 

There are lots of yummy ways to use this veg. Try this quick and easy pumpkin recipe for your next family get-together. All these ingredients are things you already have in your kitchen like coconut milk, eggs, flour, sugar, ghee etc. This traditional cake is soft, chewy and fragrant.

I cannot believe how great this cake turned out! 

Pumpkin Bingka

Ingredients

300gm pumpkin – cubed, boiled until soft and pureed

200ml thick coconut milk (diluted with ½ cup water)

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

300ml water

3 pcs of pandan leaves - washed

3 tbsp ghee

2 whole eggs  

½ tsp salt

Directions

Lightly grease a 10-inch pan with veg oil. Preheat oven to 200⁰C. Preheat the prepared pan in the oven while it heats up.

In a small sauce pan, heat the coconut milk and ghee over medium heat just until bubbles form around the edge and steam begins to rise from the coconut milk. Leave to cool.

Use a pair of scissors and cut the pandan leaves around 2cm length into the blender. Blend the pandan leaves with 300ml water. Pour the pandan pulp through a fine strainer. Use the back of a spoon to press on the pulp to get the juice out. Set aside.

Blend together the eggs, the pandan juice, sugar and half of the flour.

Add in the coconut milk mixture, salt and the remaining flour. Beat until well blended.

Carefully (because you could burn yourself, wear oven mittens as the oven would be really hot by this time) take out the prepared pan from the oven and put it on your counter. Pour the batter into the pan. At this point, you can also sprinkle sesame seeds over it.

Bake for 1 and a half hour until the top develops a lovely golden-brown hue.

Transfer onto rack to cool.