Bibingka

Recently, I gave in to a guilt trip from my co-workers, and said I’d bake something for them.  I was asked for bibingka, a Filipino sweet-savoury cake that is normally eaten around Christmas.  I was pretty lazy about it, and didn’t hunt down the rarer ingredients, but apparently they still turned out pretty good.

And now they’re asking me to bake for them again.  Oy.

A lot of native Filipino desserts just happen to be gluten-free since they use rice flour (or no flour at all).  I certainly don’t live gluten-free, but if something happens to accommodate a special diet, I’m happy to check it out!

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Jun Belen

2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, melted, more for greasing baking vessels
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup coconut milk
banana leaves (optional)

For toppings

1/4 cup grated coconut and 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 salted egg, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slices (optional) 

Equipment

Mixing bowls
Muffin or cake tin(s)
Whisk
Muffin liners or baking paper (if not using banana leaves)

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.  Mix all of the dry ingredients (except the banana leaves) in a bowl.

Melt the butter and mix it with the other wet ingredients.

If you are using banana leaves, cut them to fit into your cake or muffin tins.  Since I was lazy didn’t go shopping for them, I experimented with:

• greasing with butter, and lining just the bottoms of the muffin trays with baking paper (result)
• butter and normal muffin liners (result)
• just butter (result)

Spoiler: there wasn’t any difference. In fact, I think banana leaves would be too thick for making these as muffins, so I saved myself a headache :)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix thoroughly.  I started by folding the batter carefully, trying not to overmix the batter when I realised… these are gluten-free.  You don’t overmix a batter because you don’t want to create a lot of gluten.  If there’s nothing that would create gluten in the batter… mix away to your heart’s content!

Pour your batter into your prepared baking vessel(s) and prepare the toppings.

If you are using the sweet coconut and sugar topping, or using salted eggs, top the batter with them now, before baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes for muffins, or 20-25 minutes for cakes.

For cheese bibingka, add the cheese now, and bake or broil for another 3-5 minutes.

Let them cool in the tins for a few minutes, then they are ready to eat!

Gluten-free cakes tend to feel grainy if they are served at room temperature, so I definitely recommend eating these warm.  They store well in the fridge, but you should heat them in the microwave for a few seconds to take the chill off.

Do you live gluten-free or have some other special dietary requirements?  I’d love to see if I can find a Filipino food that you can enjoy.

Here’s the printable!