Another yummy Chinese tea treat—Chinese rice cake (Bai Tang Gao in Mandarin and Bak Tong Gao in Cantonese).
The making process of this steamed rice cake is quite similar with Chinese rice fa gao, but they tastes quite different. Bai Tang Gao is fluffy and chewy and taste best when cold, while rice fa gao is fluffy but soft. Rice Fa gao should be severed warm.
Although the process seems quite simple, there are lots of reasons can lead to failure. A successful Bai Tang Gao should presents honeycomb texture in center and tastes chewy after cooling down. Following are some of the tips Elaine summarized to help you avoid mistakes.
- The proofing time actually depends on the room temperature. It may take 2 hours in summer days, but quite longer in winter. A good solution is to place the rice batter into the oven with fermentation function (around 38 degree C). If your oven does not provide this function, place a cup of boiling water within the oven and close it.
- Bring the water to boil before pouring the rice batter in is extremely important for the honeycomb texture. We need the air steam hot enough to go through the batter and create the bubbles inside.
- Do not use any oil with strong taste, for example peanut oil. Otherwise, they will spoil the faint rice aroma.
Chinese Rice Cake—Bai Tang Gao
Fluffy and chewy Chinese rice cake--Bai Tang Gao
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Servings: 2 This amount can make 2 cakes (19cm diameter and 4cm high).
Calories: 681kcal
Ingredients
- 250 g rice flour , 2 cups+2 tablespoon
- 500 ml water
- 5 g yeast+20ml warm water , under 40℃
- 110-150 g sugar
- 1/8 tsp. several drops of oil , corn oil
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix 150ml to 160ml water with rice flour. Combine well.
- In a small pot, melt sugar with the left water (350ml). Bring to boil over medium fire.
- Pour the hot sugar liquid directly to the rice mixture. Combine well and set aside to cool down until less than 40 degree C or room temperature.
- Mix yeast with 20ml and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Combine yeast water and rice mixture well, cover with plastic wrapper for proofing.
- Drop several drops of oil in the batter and combine well. Continue proofing until there is a thick layer of small bubbles on the surface.
- Prepare a plate (steel plate is highly recommended as they are usually quite thin) and brush some oil on surface (this can help the de-molding process).
- Bring the water to boil firstly and then pour the rice batter to hot steel plate around 80% full.
- Cover with lid and steam for 15 minutes over high fire. Wait for around 10 minutes after turning off the fire. Transfer the cake out, wait for minutes and move it from the plate. Set aside to cool down completely. Either cut into large wedges or small cubes. Serve cold with tea or as breakfast.
Video
Notes
The Nutrition Facts is based on each single rice cake.
Nutrition
Calories: 681kcal | Carbohydrates: 156g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 2g | Sodium: 14mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 55g | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 0.4mg
Hi Elaine, thanks for the recipe. Does it matter what type of rice flour is used? Mochiko or Shiratamako? Rice flour vs Sweet Rice Flour? Rice Flour vs Glutinous Rice Flour? Thanks!
Alex,
We use water milled rice flour. Neither Mochiko nor Shiratamako. Just common rice flours.
Love your site. I will be making rice cake for the first time – does the rice flour need to say “glutinous” or can it just say rice flour? Your recipe only says rice flour. Thank you.
It is common rice flour.
Hi! I l have made this cake a few times and it’s always pretty good fresh but by the next day it gets hard and kind of dry. The ones I get at the store are a lot greasier and softer, should I increase the liquid or oil to get that similar texture and softness?
Hi Julia,
If you want to keep the cake for next day, you can add more oil to add the moist.
Overall not bad in flavor, but it definitely needs a lot more water. It is quite hard. More like the texture 2-3 days later. So will have to experiment with the liquid
Hi! I gave this recipe a go (used the weigh measurement method) & I used instant yeast. The end product came out really dense and compact without the honeycomb effect. Any idea why this is so?? I did use about 50ml of tepid water with the instant yeast as 20ml water gives me a very thick blob when I tried mixing it. At the end of the final proofing the batter did bubble up & there was a layer of beautiful bubbles on the surface of the batter.
The flour you used need more water. Next time, add another 50ml in addition.
I fermented/proofed for 4 hours in an oven. Temp was around 92 degrees F. I steamed 20 minutes with fire on, 10 minutes fire off. Its a bit dry, not sweet enough, and pretty yeasty. Any suggestions? Less proof time? More sugar? Less steam time? Thank you!!!
4 hours in an oven with what temperature? 4 hours seems to be quite long even in room temperature around 25 degree C. Can you describe the details?
By the way, you can slightly add more oil and increase the amount of sugar based on personal taste.
Please update recipe. 250 g of rice flour is 1.5 cups plus 1.5 tablespoons. Messed up the recipe considerably.
Why do you add the 150 ml of water in the beginning? That just made the rice flour clumpy and made it difficult to stir to a nice consistency after adding sugar water. CanI jut add all the water at once?
I will update and check the recipe soon.
Hi, my cake doesn’t have any holes please fix?
It has not been fermented well. Rest the batter longer next time.
Hi! Thank you for your wonderful recipe! I use to eat this all the time when I was small!
I tried making it and the taste was what I remembered but it didn’t harden when I steamed it. It sorta just became like a thick pudding. Any advice?
I will test the recipe soon.
Same thing happened with mine. Really disappointed. There’s something off or you missing in the recipe instructions.
Hi! I loved this cake as a kid and have been trying to make it, but each time it becomes like a liquid pudding too after I steam it. Am I using too large of a pan? Thanks!