Bibingka (Filipino Coconut Rice Cake)
Bibingka is a Filipino baked rice cake inseparable from the Christmas season, eaten warm outside churches after Simbang Gabi - the series of dawn masses held in the nine days before Christmas. A batter of rice flour, coconut milk, eggs, and sugar is poured into a clay pot lined with banana leaves and baked between two layers of charcoal heat; the banana leaves release a green, vegetal fragrance into the batter as it cooks. Slices of salted duck egg and fresh coconut are pressed into the surface, then the top is brushed with butter and returned to the heat for a final browning that caramelizes the edges and sends up a triple aroma of banana leaf, coconut, and butter. The texture sits between a rice cake and a sponge - slightly sticky and chewy yet airy and moist. At four in the morning in December, the sight of bibingka vendors tending charcoal braziers outside Philippine churches, smoke curling into the pre-dawn air, is one of the country's most iconic holiday scenes.
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Instructions
- 1
Preheat oven to 180C and grease a baking pan with butter.
- 2
Mix rice flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- 3
Whisk eggs, coconut milk, and milk, then add to the dry mix.
- 4
Pour batter into the pan and drizzle melted butter over the top.
- 5
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top turns golden.
- 6
Cool slightly, slice, and serve warm.
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