Name: Water Chestnut Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 125 g water chestnut flour; 5 fresh water chestnut ( , or you can use canned one too); 2 slabs of sugar pieces ( , around 190g, this can be replaced by brown sugar or white sugar); 700 ml water ( , 150ml for soaking + 550ml for sugar water)

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Step by step recipe of traditional Chinese water chestnut cake. Have you ever encountered with Chinese water chestnut cake in dim sum halls? They look yellow and transparent and present a sweet taste.

Water chestnut known as 马蹄 in Chinese, is a popular fruit, which has a unique sweetness and comforting crisp texture. Traditionally, housewives mainly make Chinese water chestnut cake to celebrate Chinese New Year along with other Chinese style cakes like radish cake. However the chilled version is a great dessert for summer days too. You may find that the cake has a brown color, which is actually bought by the sugar. If you prefer to have a more lighten one or even white one, simply replace the brown sugar partially or completely by rock sugar.

Check the ingredients firstly, the right picture shows the water chestnut flour and slab sugar, the left side is fresh water chestnut (usually available in winter).

Soak the water chestnut flour with 150ml water for around 10 minutes.

During the process, dissolve sugar with the remaining water (550ml) over slow fire. Until the sugar is completely dissolved, cook the chopped water chestnut for 2 minutes and immediately stir the sugar water to soaked flour mixture. At this time, you will get a thick batter.

Set up the steamer and steam for 20 minutes.

And in order to make the cake as square as possible, I use an 8 inch and 50cm high square baking pan. However just make sure you get a large enough steam set up or you can either make less each time or store the batter in two square or rectangular steamers separately.

When hot, the cake will be crystal and transparent.

cool down completely and then cut into thick slices.

5 from 2 votes

Water Chestnut Cake

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

40 mins

Chinese style water chestnut cake--a traditional and yummy dim sum dessert

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: cake, Water Chestnut

Servings: 4 full of a 8 inch square pan and around 4 cm thick

Calories: 201 kcal

Author: Elaine

Ingredients

125 g water chestnut flour
5 fresh water chestnut , or you can use canned one too
2 slabs of sugar pieces , around 190g, this can be replaced by brown sugar or white sugar
700 ml water , 150ml for soaking + 550ml for sugar water

Instructions

Soak the flour with 150ml water and stir until smooth. Set aside for 10 minutes. Then re-stir. You can strain the mixture if necessary.
In a deep plan, add the remaining water and the sugar pieces, heat over slow fire until the sugar is completely dissolved. Bring to boil and add minced fresh water chestnut in. Stop fire until the content begin to boil again.
After the sugar water boils, stir the sugar water slowly to the square pan for soaking the flour in first step immediately. During the process, keep stirring the flour water to avoid settling to the bottom. After adding the boiling sugar water, the batter will become really thick. Shake it slightly to trowel.
Set up the steamer and wok and then steam the batter for around 20 minutes. To check whether the batter is completely done, insert a toothpick in and see whether it is clean after pulling out.
Cook down completely and then cut it into thick slices. In summer days, it can be directly served cold after stored in fridge. And in winter days, pan-frying the cake with a small amount of oil and serve hot.