Steamed Rice Cup Cake with Red Beans is a famous street food in Hong Kong. Its chewy texture with flavours of sugar and beans are very attractive to those people who are fond of steamed desserts. It’s worth trying this classic Chinese snack if you haven’t had a chance before.
Ever tried this Chinese steamed rice cup cake? Traditionally, they are cooked in small earthen bowls.
In Cantonese, they are called 缽仔糕, (Bok Jai Go, literally means cakes in small bowls). So they might be translated into “bowl cake” or “bowl pudding” The Chinese character of "糕" sounds like “go” that means “pudding” or “prosperity”.
The steamed rice cup cake (aka steamed red bean pudding) is a traditional and well-known street food in Hong Kong. They usually come either in brown or white in colour, depending on whether brown sugar or white sugar is used.
Many people like adding some red beans before steaming, and having it when it’s warm.
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time:
Cook time:
Yield: 24 mini rice cupcakes or 8 bowls (each 100 ml capacity)
Notes：
|
| New photo updated |
Ever tried this Chinese steamed rice cup cake? Traditionally, they are cooked in small earthen bowls.
In Cantonese, they are called 缽仔糕, (Bok Jai Go, literally means cakes in small bowls). So they might be translated into “bowl cake” or “bowl pudding” The Chinese character of "糕" sounds like “go” that means “pudding” or “prosperity”.
The steamed rice cup cake (aka steamed red bean pudding) is a traditional and well-known street food in Hong Kong. They usually come either in brown or white in colour, depending on whether brown sugar or white sugar is used.
Many people like adding some red beans before steaming, and having it when it’s warm.
Steamed Rice Cup Cake with Red Beans Recipe
(Printable recipe)By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time:
Cook time:
Yield: 24 mini rice cupcakes or 8 bowls (each 100 ml capacity)
Ingredients:
- 85 gm rice flour
- 55 gm wheat starch
- 110 gm brown sugar
- 2 cups water
- Red bean paste (home-cooked or canned) to taste
Method :
- Add rice flour and wheat starch into 1/2 cup of water and stir well.
- Use 1 1/2 cups of water to dissolve sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Quickly pour into the flour mixture. Continuously stirring while pouring. Stir and combine thoroughly.
- Transfer mixture into a mini muffin tray (or any mould you like) to steam over high heat, about 10 minutes, in batches. In the middle of steaming, you can add some sweetened red beans on the surface of rice pudding and continue to steam until cooked through.
 |
| Photo taken on Oct. 2009. |
Notes：
- Traditionally, this dessert is cooked in little bowls. If you use bowls, then cooking time will be around 20 minutes. The non-stick muffin tray I used, which is a good heat conductor, the steaming time was shorter.
- Remember to grease the bowls before adding flour mixture into them.
Your contemporary version of the bok jai go is sooooooo cute, haha
ReplyDeleteTo Kenny,
ReplyDeleteI used to make these little, cute "bok jai go" and bring along to party as finger food. Haha...
Christine, these look so delicious. I have not made them yet but will have to one day. Love red bean paste. Very gd for parties. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTo MaryMoh,
ReplyDeleteYay, your friends at parties would give you a big welcome then. ^0^
Wow, another wonderful dish on my Christine list to try. It looks amazing and I have an incredible weakness for red beans.
ReplyDeleteTo OysterCulture:
ReplyDeleteWelcome red bean lover!
Sure, you have to try~
Does it tastes the same like wad they're selling in Hong Kong? No offence, ehehee..cause i've tried lots of recipe over the internet but non come close to the taste....but have not tried yours yet..please advise~~
ReplyDeleteI've always want to try this!Looks so good!
ReplyDeleteIn Msia/ SG, you will find the nyonya rice cupcakes. They served with grated coconuts. Your rice cupcakes look so pretty and make me drooling now....
ReplyDeleteI MADE IT YOUR WAY AND IT CAME OUT VERY GOOD AND YUMMY, FINALLY! I WAS SEARCHING ONLINE FOR THIS RECIPE FOR SO LONG AND SO MANY CAME OUT VERY BADLY , TRUST ME , I TRIED MOST OF THEM ...BUT YOURS WAS THE ONLY RECIPE THAT DIDN'T FAIL MY EXPECTATIONS, THANKS FOR POSTING IT :)
ReplyDeleteHii i wass wondering the 2 cups of water
ReplyDeletedo you mean big cups or small once... ?
To Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI use the metric cup to measure for all recipes on this blog.
1 cup = 250 ml
2 cups = 500 ml
thank you christine!!!
ReplyDeleteIf I'd like to add red beans before steaming, what texture should those red beans be? Boiled and soften slighly? or Red bean paste?
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine.
To ashley,
ReplyDeleteFor this recipe, the texture of red beans is up to your preference.
I like the red beans just softened, and not too soggy.
When you say wheat flour, do you mean like whole wheat flour? Or do you mean wheat starch? I tried this recipe and it was good. I used whole wheat flour, and it gave it a weird texture.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWheat flour and whole wheat flour are two different things.
In this recipe, the "wheat flour" is “澄麵” in chinese, available at Asian stores. See the right-hand side of the second picture my previous post here.
Hi Christine, your steamed rice cake looks absolutely mouth-watering. I'm going to try making these one day.
ReplyDeletePS: I found you through Kristy.
hi christine can ypu write bok jai go in chinese plis
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI've already translated the recipe in Chinese there.
Hey Christine. Is it possible to replace the brown sugar with regular granulated sugar? Will it make a difference?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteYes, you can. When I was in HK, I saw there were two kinds of steamed rice cup cakes, one was brown, the other white.
If you use regular granulated sugar, there won't be any big difference in taste, but the colour would be white, and lack of the sugar cane fragrance.
Thank you so much Christine!! I have been searching very long for a recipe for Bok Jai Go. Your recipe is the first one that I found that looks close to what my mom used to make. She is no longer with us and we miss her many dishes/desserts.
ReplyDeletewow im super excited to try out your recipe as everyone else has raved about their success. i wanted to ask you about mixing red beans into the batter. is that possible? will it ruin the consistency of it when steaming?
ReplyDelete@sharon
ReplyDeleteYes, it would, and make the colour of the batter change.
Moreover, all the red beans would sink and sit at the bottom.
hi christine,
ReplyDeleteim having trouble converting grams to cups. approximately how many cups is 85gm of rice flour and 55 gram of wheat starch?
i made the first batch but think i used too much dry ingredient cause it became really really thick and hard to mix when i added the 1/2 cup water to it. then after i steamed it, it looked kinda funny too. very grainy looking. thanks!!
@sharon
ReplyDeleteYes, I also find converting gram to cup measurement is very troublesome because every ingredient is very different. There is no formula out there to use. You have to weigh the ingredient one by one. So that's why I like to use an electric kitchen scale. And it's more accurate, more quality control.
Even though you have cup measurement converted, every time you use a cup to measure out the flour is not the same, for sometimes you might press or not level it enough. The difference is quite big.
Would you consider investing some money to buy an electric kitchen scale?
Hi Christine
ReplyDeleteI've been browsing your blog for awhile now and just love the recipes you have posted on your blog! This recipe just reminded me of some great memories of when I was growing up in HK! Thank you :) I am going to give this a try! Hope it works :) (I might see if I could make the white colour version!)
Edwina :)
Hi Christine
ReplyDeleteLove ur chinese n english recipes. Great for someone like me who's chinese is "half bucket of water" :P
Made ur steam bowl cake for my colleagues n they loved it. I also used a muffin tin but i found that i had to steam twice longer than ur suggested time n the middle of the cake still runny. Am I doin something wrong? Pls help. Thx. Shirley
Thank you for the recipe. My only problem is that I used a bigger mould muffin tray (only 6 cakes at a time for me) and it is difficult to get them out.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteTry a non-stick tin or grease some oil before putting the batter in, that would help.
I love this recipe but one question. The ones in Hong Kong are less harder in texture. Christine (or anyone), do you know how to make them a bit 'lighter' and more 'wobbly' if you what I mean?
ReplyDeletei wish i had read some of these comments b/c i tried to make this recipe but it was with whole wheat flour! blech, it was a mess...i'll have to look for the wheat flour starch!
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing this recipe~ I made it today for my mom (who grew up in Hong Kong) and she said it tasted pretty authentic. :) actually, I didn't have any wheat flour, so I substituted with potato starch..not sure exactly what difference it might've made, but the taste and texture were still good!
ReplyDeleteHi Chris, The first 2 times I did it was fine. Now I tried 3 times and I feel there is something wrong with it. I bought a new packet of Wheat flour which is exactly the same brand as before. Something funny happened. When I poured the hot water into the flour mixture. It become gluey and the mixture is very thick. Can you please let me know what is the problem. It seems like the flour has already cooked. Thanks for your help.
ReplyDelete@Betty:
ReplyDeleteHey, it's interesting!
Supposed that the steps you followed and ingredients you used were right and exactly the same as your first 2 times. Right?
Is the flour expired or something?
Could you shoot me some pictures of the wheat flour product and the process you mix the flour if you try the 4th time? Am very curious.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteCould you let me know if it matters whether I am using rice flour in the red bag or glutinous rice flour that comes in a green bag? Which one should i use?
@Angry Asian:
ReplyDeleteFor making this steamed rice cake, we use rice flour that comes in the red packet, about 85grams.
Rice flour and glutinous rice flour help produce very different textures. The latter will make cakes more chewy and elastic. It does matter which kind of flour we choose.
In Malaysia we can get the savoury version of this steamed rice cake topped with some cooked salted vegetable.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a recipe for this ??
Thank you.
@Jan;
ReplyDeleteSorry,don't have it at the moment. :p
Hi Christine.
ReplyDeleteI made these today using Pearl River brand brown slab sugar but my puddings came out really pale. Which brand brown sugar did you use to get that lovely colour?
@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI used CSR brown sugar.