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Growing up, I often had Kue Lapis for my afternoon snack. I love its soft chewy texture and the fun peeling and eating it layer by layer. Kue Lapis also known as kuih lapis, is a traditional Southeast Asian dessert that is easy yet tedious to make. It comes in many different colours, the most popular and iconic ones are the rainbow version, which has red, yellow, orange, blue, green, purple and white. You can also find green and white or pink and white ones very often in food stalls selling different types of kue.
Kue Lapis means layered cake, in Chinese language, the Chinese name 九层糕 literally means 9 layer cake. The texture of this delightful snack is sticky, chewy, bouncy and soft. There is a very light hint of pandan and coconut in the flavour. I usually eat this with coffee or tea. And it can be eaten anytime, be it for breakfast, for afternoon break, or even after dinner as a dessert.
Ingredients of Kue Lapis
If you grow up in Southeast Asia, you will be familiar with snacks such as ang ku kueh, Kuih Seri Muka (Kueh Salat), kueh dadar, pulut tai tai, onde onde, kueh sago, puteri ayu, kueh kosui, muah chee, and many more. They all share more or less the same type of ingredients, such as rice flour, tapioca flour, glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, gula melaka and pandan leaves. In fact, I always keep these ingredients in my pantry as I can easily whip up any of these snacks when I feel like homemade ones. As they said, homemade is the best, and to me, also the healthiest as I can control the type of sugar used and the amount of sweetness to add.
The ingredients used in this recipe are:
- Rice flour – Flour made from finely milled rice, it is gluten-free, and gives a slightly chewy, stretchy texture to the finished dish.
- Tapioca flour – A gluten-free flour made from the cassava plant, it thickens the kue batter, helping it bind together and gives the light and spongy texture.
- Coconut milk & water – Semi diluted coconut milk is used for its beautiful aromatic flavours. A must in this recipe.
- Stevia sweetener – As I do not like to add sugar into my food, stevia sweetener is the alternative choice, and I added at a lower quantity.
- Salt – Added to the sweetened batter to elevate the overall taste profile.
- Pandan leaves – A regular ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking, pandan leaves have this natural fragrance that makes the food smell and taste nice.
- Cooking oil – To apply onto the dish to steam the kue lapis. This help unmoulding easier as the rice flour component makes the kue sticky by nature.
- Food colouring – I used gel based food colouring in this recipe. I tried using oil based colouring once but the colour pigment does not mix well with the kue batter so that’s definitely not a good option.
How to store Kue Lapis
The kue can be kept in an airtight container in the chiller for 3-5 days. It will turn harder so be sure to steam it for a few minutes to soften before enjoying it.
Watch how to make kue lapis on YouTube
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Kue Lapis (九层糕)
Detailed Step-by-Step Video
Ingredients
- 130 g rice flour
- 170 g tapioca flour
- 450 ml coconut milk
- 150 g stevia sweetener
- 5 pandan leaves
- 450 ml water
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Using a sauce pan over medium heat, bring 150 g stevia sweetener and 450 ml water, 1/4 tsp salt, and 5 pandan leaves to a simmering boil. Once the sweetener dissolves, remove from the heat.
- In a mixing bowl, first mix together the 130 g rice flour, 170 g tapioca flour, 450 ml coconut milk and the hot sweetened water. Mix well into a consistent batter.
- Divide the batter into 9 small bowls. For one of the bowl, add 2 more tbsp of the batter into it, that will be the base of the kue lapis.
- Add Green food colouring and mix well. I used green food colouring in different lightness and darkness of green.Note: I used gel based colouring as oil based colour pigments does not dissolve well into the batter.
- Coat a heat proof dish with Vegetable oil.Note: I used 6.5" x 8" x 2" heat proof glass dish.
- Boil water in a steamer pot on high heat. Then add the heat proof dish, cover and steam for 5 minutes. This is to ensure the dish is consistently heated to optimise the cooking of the batter.
- Stir the first bowl of batter before pouring the kue batter into the dish. Turn to low heat. Cover and steam for 7 minutes for this first layer. To see if the layer is cooked, gently touch the surface with a spoon, the layer should be a bit soft and jelly like.
- Wait for 1 minute before pouring in the next colour layer. Stir the batter in the bowl before pouring into the dish. Increase the heat to medium low. Cover and steam for 5 minutes.
- Repeat the same step for every layer, until all layers are done. Note: If the water is running low in the steamer, add more water.
- For the last layer, steam for 10 minutes.
- Let the kue cool completely in the heat proof dish until it reaches room temperature. Run a plastic spatula along the sides to loosen the kue.
- Flip the dish and unmould the kue onto a plastic surface.Note: I put a plastic cling wrap sheet onto a cutting board. The plastic surface will prevent the kue from sticking.
- Cut into desired shape. Serve and enjoy.
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