Puto cuchinta or kutsinta or brown rice cake is a type of steamed rice cake found throughout the Philippines. It is made from a mixture of tapioca or rice flour, brown sugar and lye, enhanced with yellow food coloring or annatto extract, and steamed in small ramekins.
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. lye (lihiya) water
Grated fresh coconut for toppings
Procedure
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Let cool. Add to flour, stir until smooth. Add lye water (lihiya) and mix well.
Boil some water in the steamer.
Fill greased small muffin pans 3/4 full with mixture. Steam for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool before removing from pans.
Before refilling molds for a second batch, stir batter very well because the flour tends to settle at the bottom and may cause the kutsinta to be too soft or soggy on top. Do this before refilling each batch of molds.
Loosen sides of molds with spatula before unmolding kutsinta onto plate. Serve with grated fresh coconut sprinkled on top.
Recipes by Lucelle 