Cream Crackers Kuih...anyone?

Ever since I went back I had this urge to do something with my leftover Cream Crackers that was in my room ever since my flight back to Malaysia.

I’ve procrastinated time and time again, probably because I was hoping I could find a better day to do so rather than just do it and have nobody try it and end up alone with a whole batch.
Eventually last weekend I was alone and I had the liberty to shop around and bought several necessities including the main ingredients to make Cream Cracker Kuih, or CC kuih for simplicity. Never heard of it?

Who would imagine this could be something else than it was?

Not surprising, because this is my grandmother’s signature dish. She made it sometimes because there was an excess of Cream Crackers that nobody wanted and made it into a brand new dish that would fool us into eating. I have craved for it ever since I came back and made a decision to learn it by hook or by crook.

It started when I called her and asked her how to make it. After I got the recipe, I had a practice run with my mom back in Malaysia and found it was rather bland, with the kuih itself flat because I didn’t put enough baking soda into it.

I took into account of the two problems I had with it and made improvements with it. It was this afternoon that I decided it was a good time to try it out, as well as share it with the others.
The ingredients are as follows:

22pcs of Ping Pong Cream Crackers

5 Eggs

7 Tablespoons of sugar (I used 8 as the previous one was bland)

150g of Planta/Butter

1 teaspoon of baking soda (I used 1 ½ , abit more is always better)

And 3-4 tablespoons of milk (Not compulsory, just to make it moist)

Firstly, smash the pieces of Cream Crackers into particles,

No, this isn't smashed enough, try harder!!

When I mean smash them, yes that means you can imagine your worst enemy and literally quash them into little particles of dust. A little strength is always good as this is a very tedious process. A mortar and pestle is a good idea, if you have one. But in this case I didn’t, therefore I took longer than expected to do so, the purpose of this well as you guessed, is because this is the theme of the dish, and I’m actually replacing flour with biscuits. Therefore flour is not needed and it still works as the biscuit itself is made out of flour. Get my point?

I’ve thought about using other cookies, but let’s try it next time, or you may do so and tell me the results.

While Chong and the others were trapped in their world of Left 4 Dead, where they found being the Zombies were more satisfying than being the survivors getting hunted. Sadistic bunch, aren’t they?

Left 4 Dead is a new rave in our gang and Wilson has been screaming all day long while playing it. It happened last night when I went to his house and I could hear him screaming from the outside of the house. That shouldn’t go well with his neighbours I guess, and the prospect of food after two hours of zombie-killing of Boomers, Hunters, Smokers, Witches and Tanks would be quite low.

However, I went on and went on to the next part of the recipe, which was to mix the sugar with the butter. As I couldn’t find Planta here, butter would be a good replacement.

Hmm...this is weird....

The process is as equally long as the smashing, but even worse, I never understood the reason to do so. One was solid and the other was a piece of oily substance in solid form, so after the test run I found it to be the binding agent to this dish and the longer you whisk it to make it expand and dissolve the sugar, as I forgot hydrocarbons are organic solvents as well. I didn’t have a hand mixer, or a proper whisk, so it was spoon action all the way, my hands are tired after that, not to mention oily.

Then everything was simple, add the rest in, as well as the crushed Cream Crackers and mix it rather thoroughly, and baste the pan with butter when you’re about to use for steaming as you don’t want an hour of scraping the surface of the pan after that.

Don’t worry about the surface of the mixture, it will eventually go smooth as the baking soda will make it expand and it will force the surface to change.

After that, steam it for 15-20 minutes over a water bath.

After that, voila!

Cut it diagonally so that it does look like a kuih, and best serve it piping hot. The kuih should be easily removed and you’ll be happy with the end of the leftover biscuits you have that you though you couldn’t finish!

Jeng, jeng , jeng!! Now, comes the most important part of the whole thing: Tasting

I took a slice and out of the pan and served it to my potential victims as if I was hunting them on Left4Dead.

However, the reception wasn’t as good as I predicted. Michael took a bite and said it was not too bad. Chong had two slices and said it reminded him of his mother’s colleague’s sponge cake.

Wilson said it looked like Ma Lai Gou but after tasting it said it was too oily to his liking.

Jeremy didn’t even want to have a slice at all. I might assume that his belief that his household’s brand of Chinese New Year cookies and confectionery is the best and he would not try anything else would also apply to my CC kuih. I’m not mad at them, but I would’ve expected something more after an hour of forceful labour of love. To cooking I mean.

To me it was as good as mom would make it. It was fluffy, it wasn’t too sweet and it was consistent with the original piece, or as my taste buds would think. I was pretty happy with the outcome, but very, very disappointed with the reviews. Somehow I fell gutted and it doused any motivation to keep making things to share with people. Probably it was a good indication that I never should’ve treaded the food industry, no matter how much I loved it.

P.S: Ooh! Time flies. MU vs Liverpoo (“L” purposely removed as I do think they’re shit anyway). Go go go MU ftw!!

P.P.S: The rest of the CC Kuih is still with me...looks like my premonition came true...