Loh Mai Chi (糯米糍)

In case any one of you have no idea what is Loh Mai Chi(糯米糍), it is actually slightly sweetened glutinous rice kuehs encasing sweeten roasted ground peanuts. The kueh is pretty similar to mochi texture, but its softer and probably much more sticky due to its higher ratio of water. And because of that, it is very hard, at least to me, to make this kueh. I kept telling myself as I was shaping and wrapping the peanut fillings; Why did I get myself into this "sticky situation"?! Lol! So naturally, I didn't do a good job making these...almost a quarter of them ended up badly wrapped and into my mouth!! Well at least they still taste good. ;)

As you can see, these balls are not exactly picture perfect but trust me, they are the most presentable ones I made, lol! I only made half the recipe, so it only yields about 12 balls, not a lot of room for practice if you know what I mean. :P

I got this recipe from the book "Agnes Chang's Hawkers' Delights", one of my favorite kueh / local delights cookbook. :) But I think next time I might reduce the amount of water added so that it won't be that sticky to handle. :P But again, the texture is really soft and nice....

Ingredients for Loh Mai Chi (糯米糍): (makes about 24)

250g glutinous rice flour

500ml water

80g sugar

Filling:

500g toasted peanuts, skin removed and grounded

100g toasted sesame seeds, grounded (I omitted this)

150g icing sugar, sifted

Mix everything together until well combined.

Flour for coating:

500g rice flour (I used only 200g)

The book suggested to fry the flour till very dry and then let cool. But I just microwave 3 times at high for 1 minutes.

Method:

• Skin: Mix all the ingredients until well combined. Pour into a greased steaming tray and steam with medium heat for 45 minutes (I only steamed 20 minutes) until cooked.
• Leave to cool and pour into the rice flour for coating. Then using a greased scissors, snip it into 25 equal portions.
• Take a portion of the cooled kueh and flatted into a disc. Place a teaspoon worth of peanut filling in the center and wrap it up by sealing the ends properly.
• Then coat it again with the rice flour before putting it into small paper liners.

Because the peanut filling is a like a loose pile(no oil or water added), its so hard to place it neatly and seal the dough. So when I see how nicely some of the fellow bloggers made these yummy kueh....envy envy! I guess the only way is to make them again and practice more!

I love this shot, a generous amount of peanut filling...I like! If you are a peanut lover like me, you have got to make this. It's like peanut filled mochi, nice! :D You know if you can't shape it like you want it, just snip up the kueh and roll them in the ground peanuts and eat them like Muah chi, haha! I bet it's equally good. ;)

I am happy to submit this to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011) hosted by Small Small Baker.

Okie dokie, got to go. Hope you all have a great week ahead! Cheers!