While most kitchens in Asia aren't equipped with an oven, this recipe is an adaptation of the steamed version of the dessert that is traditionally eaten during the Chinese New Year celebration. The word "nian" is a homophone for sticky and year. The word "gao" is a homophone for higher and cake. So nian gao can mean sticky cake, or year higher. Kind of neat, huh?
This recipe will require a greased 8x8 cake pan.
Also, I will have a mini post about what glutinous rice flour is in the "what is that" section. You also need some cooked sweetened red bean. You can buy adzuki beans and cook them yourself, or buy them already cooked (canned) sweetened, or non sweetened. If you can't find adzuki beans, red kidney beans will work as well. Just make sure if you get the canned stuff, it's unsalted. You need to sweeten it by cooking it with sugar water for about 30 minutes. I like the red bean/condensed milk combination, so I combined the sweet red bean with some condensed milk to make my red bean paste.
Ingredients
Group A
12 oz sticky rice flour or glutinous rice flour
2 eggs
3 T oil or melted butter
1- 12 oz can of evaporated milk
3/4 c sugar
pinch of salt.
Group B
1/2 cup sweetened red bean smashed or paste
4 T condensed milk
Procedure
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Mix all of the Group A ingredients together in a bowl. You don't have to worry about over-mixing the batter, because it is gluten free. Pour the batter into the greased pan.
2. Combine the 2 Group B ingredients together. Drop spoonfuls of the red bean mixture into the batter.
3. Bake for about an hour, or until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
This tastes great warm, but will become stickier (chewier) when it cools down. If you let it sit a few days and it is no longer sticky, just put a piece of it into the toaster oven for a light toast session and it will be as good as fresh.