from the philippines: bibingka (à la rebekah)

every so often i am inspired to make something exotic.  i say every so often because, mostly, we have some variation of chicken and rice.  and for dessert: nothing.

but not today!

in high school i spent a lot of time at a friend's (whose family happened to be from the philippines) house.  her mom made this amazing yellow, cakey, dense, moist, coconut-egg cake... that i adored and that i could never remember the name of.  after much googling yesterday, i found the name.  after even more googling, i figured out what the coconut ingredient was (that i also couldn't remember) that you can't find anywhere except in asian markets. 

mystery ingredient:  

you also need sweet rice flour (NOT to be confused with plain rice flour).  this is also called glutinous rice flour.  now, you can buy the bob's red mill kind but you will have to buy 24 ounces (and you don't need that much) and pay $4.00 (which is way too much). i don't know about you, but i can't think of anything else that calls for sweet rice flour.  i got my 16 ounces from the asian market for $0.99:

now, if you search bibingka online, you will get hundreds of recipes, all different.  so i made my own with the ingredients i liked.  it was amazing.

bibingka

1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)

1/2 cup sugar (or brown sugar)

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 can coconut milk

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (or if you don't have this, up the sugar to 3/4 cup)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 ounces (two cups) sweet (glutinous) rice flour

macapuno coconut strings (optional)

1/8 cup wheat germ (or ground almonds) (i did not use this because i didn't have it and it still came out, probably just a bit spongier than it would have been)

cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs.  add the rest of the wet ingredients.  add the dry ingredients and stir until well blended.  pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish and bake for 40 minutes.  my oven runs hot and 35 minutes would have sufficed.

one variation i've seen is to sprinkle the top with sharp (or extra sharp) cheddar cheese before baking.  mmm!

after cooling for about two hours, the consistency was just like mochi--which i love.  if you don't know what mochi is, well, your loss.  go buy some and eat it.