Eid is almost here and it's time to ramp up your preparations! It's not too late to bake up some kuih raya in these upcoming few days before Eid. To help you out, we've rounded up a list of 10 recipes for amazing, yummy goodies to make and share with your loved ones!
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1. Marble Cake
Moist and buttery, this is why everyone loves the spongy marble cake. Every bite comes with a burst of dried fruit sweetness and spice-infused aroma! This kuih raya is a classic and you’ll definitely want more after trying this recipe.
Ingredients (serves 5):
500g butter (room temperature)
125g self-raising flour
150g whole eggs
420g egg yolks
230g caster sugar
½ teaspoon of mixed spice
3 tablespoons of condensed milk
250g seedless prunes (cut into halves)
1 tablespoon sponge gel
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven at 200 degrees celsius.
- Grease an 8-inch cake pan with butter and line the base with greaseproof paper.
- In a mixing bowl, add flour and mixed spice. Set aside.
- Using the kitchen machine with a paddle attachment, beat butter and condensed milk together on medium speed for approximately 10 minutes, until light and fluffy. Set aside after.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add whole eggs, egg yolks, sugar and sponge gel. Using a whisk attachment, whisk the ingredients together on high speed for 8 minutes until fluffy.
- Add flour mixture to the egg mixture. With the paddle attachment, beat the mixtures together on low speed, until just combined.
- Continue beating the ingredients at low speed, add butter in 3 batches, ensuring mixture are incorporated well after each addition.
- Place the greased cake pan into the oven and heat it for 2 minutes. Set the oven to “Grill” mode.
- Combine the flour and egg mixture together, and beat it well using a dry and clean spatula.
- Scoop about 1 ladleful of batter and spread it evenly on the bottom of the cake pan. Bake for about 6 minutes, or until layer is cooked and nicely brown.
- Remove cake pan from oven and prick a few holes with a fork. Add another layer of batter, spread it evenly and bake. Repeat until batter is used up.
- At every 4th layer of uncooked batter, scatter some prunes before baking.
- As the layers build up, baking time will be shorter, to avoid burning any layer.
- On the final layer, scatter some prunes. Set oven to 180 degrees celsius, and set to “Top and bottom” heating. Bake the cake for 10 minutes.
- When done, take the cake out from the oven and allow it to cool completely.
- Slice the sides of the cake to reveal the layers and serve.
2. Biskut Bangkit Cheese
Simplicity at its best, Biskut Bangkit Cheese will have the kids and the young at heart rushing for second servings. A traditional cookie that crumbles delicately in every bite, the cheddar cheese is a secret ingredient that will make the flavours pop! With the Smeg stand mixer, you can easily whisk your ingredients to your heart's content for a creamy, yummy batter.
Ingredients (serves 9):
250g butter
180g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
250g sweet potato flour
225g corn flour
½ teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of salt
70g grated cheddar cheese
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven at 160 degrees celsius.
- Using the Smeg stand mixer, whisk butter and icing sugar on medium speed until the mixture thickens. Add yolks and continue whisking.
- Add sweet potato flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture. Mix the ingredients together until a dough is formed.
- Flatten the dough using a rolling pin. Mould the dough using your desired cookie cutter shapes.
- Place cookies on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and brush the surface with egg yolks. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
- Bake cookies in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
- When done, take tarts out from the oven. Serve when cookies are completely cooled.
3. Ondeh Ondeh Tarts
Everyone who loves the traditional glutinous rice balls will be delighted by its modern version of ondeh ondeh tarts. A sweet dessert that’s popular across Southeast Asia, the tart version delivers a crunch while still staying true to the palm sugar and grated coconut stylings!
Ingredients (serves 9) :
Tart
200g butter
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of pandan emulco
3-4 drops of green food colouring
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
40g icing sugar
40g corn starch
300g wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
Grated coconuts
Filling
1 cup of gula melaka
2 teaspoons of water
15g butter
2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
A pinch of salt
Instructions:
Tart
- Preheat the oven at 150 degrees celsius.
- In a bowl, add butter, egg yolks, pandan emulco, vanilla essence and green food colouring.
- Whisk until all ingredients are evenly mixed.
- Add wheat flour, corn starch, icing sugar and baking powder into the mixture. Whisk until all ingredients are well mixed together.
- Knead the dough until even and flatten it with a rolling pin.
- Mould the tarts using your desired cookie cutters.
- Place the tarts on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake them in the oven at 150 degrees celsius for 15 – 20 minutes.
- When done, take tarts out of the oven and leave them to cool completely.
Filling
- In a saucepan, heat gula melaka and water until fully melted.
- Add butter and virgin coconut oil into mixture and mix evenly.
- Add a pinch of salt and continue stirring until mixture thickens.
- Pipe gula melaka mixture on the tarts and sprinkle grated coconut over them.
- Baked tarts for 5 minutes at 150 degrees celsius.
- Take tarts out of the oven when done. Serve when tarts are cooled completely.
4. Pineapple Tarts
If there’s one kuih raya that comes to mind every year, it’s the classic pineapple tarts! Everyone knows the Raya season produces an abundance of these delicious pastries - they’re a staple for the Raya occasion, giving you a crunchy, buttery treat filled with sweet pineapple jam! Best news is you can easily make a whole batch of them on your own with this recipe; have fun by getting your family to help out!
Ingredients (4 jars or 150 pieces):
Tart
250g margarine
250g butter
100g powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
700g low protein flour
4 tablespoons of powdered milk
Pineapple paste
3 small pineapples (grated or puree with blender. If you are in Singapore or Malaysia, you can purchase pre-made pineapple paste or filling from local supermarkets!)
200g white sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 piece of cinnamon
Egg wash
3 egg yolks mixed with 1 tablespoon of milk
Instructions:
Pineapple paste
- Mix the grated pineapple with salt and cinnamon
- Cook the pineapple paste on medium heat until it thickens
- Once the pineapple paste thickens, add the sugar
- Continue to cook until the pineapple paste becomes solid enough to mould
- Set aside to cool
Tart
- Mix the margarine, butter, powdered sugar and egg with a mixer
- Add the flour and powdered milk before mixing manually with a spatula. Mix until the dough is solid enough to mould
- Take a tablespoon of dough (around 8g) and flatten the dough in your palm
- Take a teaspoon of pineapple paste, place it in the centre, fold the dough to cover the paste, and shape it the way you want
- Prepare a baking tin layered with a baking sheet and line up the tart
- Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and bake the pineapple tarts for 20 minutes or halfway through
- After 20 minutes, remove the baking tin from the oven and brush the top of each tart with egg wash
- Put the baking tin into the oven again and continue baking for 30 minutes or until the tarts are golden brown and cook through (The tarts are baked twice to prevent from burning the egg wash. If that happens, it'll alter the taste of the tart.)
- Set aside to cool and pack it in a jar
5. Tapak Kuda Nutella
We’ve all seen this hot favourite cake oozing with mouth-watering Nutella at a relative’s place during Raya. It’s actually pretty simple to make! With all the tools you need, it doesn’t take much time and effort to whip up one of your own, even if this is your first baking experience.
Ingredients (makes 4 rolls):
10 egg yolks
5 egg whites
135g melted butter
110g plain flour
200g castor sugar
10g milk powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ovalette
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon chocolate emulco
Nutella
Instructions:
- Whisk eggs, sugar & ovalette at low speed and then to medium speed for 8-10 minutes till the mixture is thick and fluffy
- Add sifted flour, milk powder and baking powder and mix well with the paddle attachment
- Add in the cool melted butter and vanilla essence and mix well
- Divide the batter into 2 bowls - ⅓ for bowl A and ⅔ for bowl B
- Add chocolate emulco to bowl A and mix well
- Pour a thin layer of chocolate batter into a lined & greased 10-inch square pan
- Pour the plain batter over the chocolate batter. Be careful not to mix the batter!
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes
- Once cooked, remove the cake from tray and cut the cake into 2
- Place the cut cake over a cling wrap and spread lots of Nutella onto it
- Fold the cake, wrap it up and refrigerate!
6. Honey Cornflakes
A true classic that everyone's familiar with during the festive season - honey cornflakes! Made with just honey, butter and cornflakes, it's a straightforward goodie to make so if you're a beginner in the kitchen, this is definitely the one to whip up. With this easy honey cornflakes recipe, you'll have yourself a whole batch of sweet bite-sized morsel to enjoy at home in no time at all!
Ingredients (yields 70 mini cornflake cups):
2 tablespoon honey
5g unsalted butter
150g cornflakes, crushed to smaller pieces
Coloured sprinkles
Instructions:
- Melt butter and honey in a saucepan over gentle heat. Stir until the mixture becomes frothy.
- Add crushed cornflakes into the honey-butter mixture and make sure to coat the cornflakes evenly.
- Spoon the cornflakes into individual paper cups and top with coloured sprinkles.
- Bake in a preheated oven of 150°C for 10 to 12 minutes until the cornflakes become dark golden.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool before storing in an airtight container. Enjoy!
7. Ovaltine Cookies
This is a superb twist to the popular drink - Ovaltine. Be rest assured that these cookies will be a popular kuih among all your visitors - both kids and adults alike - this Raya!
Ingredients (serves 8):
1½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup Ovaltine health drink
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
½ cup milk
¼ cup butter, melted
Instructions:
- Using an electric mixer, mix butter, eggs and sugar until mixed thoroughly
- Add milk a little at a time and mix the dough until it is smooth. Leave the dough for 15 minutes in the fridge wrapped in a cling wrap
- After 15 minutes, make small balls of dough mix and slightly press down using your thumb
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool before storing in an airtight container. Enjoy!
8. Kuih Makmur
For a nutty taste, make the pretty and delicious Kuih Makmur! The icing sugar definitely tops it all - but the crunchy ground nuts in the pastry will leave you wanting more with its addictive taste.
Ingredients
- 250g all-purpose flour, toasted
- 125g ground nuts
- 50g castor sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 100g ghee (clarified butter)
- 1 egg
- 50g powdered milk
- 60g icing sugar
Directions
Advance prep
- Preheat oven to 150°C and bake the ground nuts for 30 minutes.
- Once done, remove peanut skin.
- Blend the peanuts in a food processor but not until they become as fine as powder. You want to keep some texture to them.
- Store the blended nuts in an airtight container until further use.
- In a wok, toast the flour on low heat for about 15 minutes until it turns into a pale yellow.
- After it has been thoroughly toasted, let it cool before storing in a separate airtight container.
Making, shaping & coating the cookie
- Heat oven to 160°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Mix the ground nuts with sugar and salt, and combine well.
- In a mixing bowl, sift the toasted flour and create a well in the middle.
- Melt ghee in the microwave for 30 seconds on high heat. Then pour the melted ghee in the well of the flour.
- Using a spoon, mix the flour and ghee to form a dough.
- Beat the egg and mix it into the dough. Add the crushed nuts and sugar mix until well-combined.
- Pinch off a small handful of dough and shape it into bite-sized balls (roughly 2cm wide).
- After all the dough has been used up, place the balls on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and set them aside to cool off a little.
- Prepare the milk coating by whisking together milk powder and icing sugar.
- While the cookies are still warm, roll them in the milk coating thoroughly, making sure that they generously coated.
- Allow the cookies to cool fully before storing and enjoying.
9. Bombolini
Known as one of Italy's most popular desserts, there's no resisting when it comes to bomboloni! This doughnut is filled with a chunk of Nutella in the middle that oozes out into your mouth with every bite. If you can't resist the perfect combination of Nutella and pillowy soft doughnuts, here's the one recipe you need.
Ingredients (yields 6)
- ¼ cup + 3 tbsp milk, room temperature
- 1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 2 ½ tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cups + 2 tns all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 cup pastry cream of choice
Equipment
- Stand-mixer
- 2 ½ -inch round cookie cutter
Directions
- In a bowl of the stand mixer, add milk and sprinkle yeast on top. Leave it aside for 5 minutes to activate before mixing them together. Add sugar, oil, egg and vanilla essence and whisk to combine.
- Slowly add flour, butter and pinch of salt to the mixture. Using the dough hook attachment, mix the dough on speed 2 until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Knead for about 7 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
- On a clean work surface, knead the dough several times and shape it into a ball. Place it into a lightly greased bowl and roll the dough around to lightly coat it with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it aside at room temperature for about 2 to 3 hours until the size has tripled.
- Knead the dough a couple of times and roll it out to ¼ - ⅓ inch thick and cut about 6 rounds of dough out with a cookie cutter.
- Place the cut dough on a lined baking sheet, then cover with plastic wrap and leave it to rise for about 1 hour.
- In a pot, fill it with about 2-inch of vegetable oil and heat to about 170 to 175. Carefully drop the doughnuts in and start frying. Turn them around a few times, cooking it on each side for about 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove the fried doughnuts and transfer them to a plate lined with a paper towel. Then, roll them immediately in a bowl of sugar. Make sure to coat the entire doughnut.
- Let the doughnuts cool a little before making an indentation at the side using a wooden spoon. Fill the doughnut with a pastry cream of your choice using a piping bag, serve and enjoy!
10. Scones
This is a classic English teatime treat that is best enjoyed with clotted cream, jam and of course, tea! If you're missing your cafe outings or are just looking for a yummy snack, it's time to make the best scones with this simple halal English scone recipe.
Ingredients (makes about 15 - 20 scones, depending on the size of your cutter)
- 500g all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp of baking powder
- 2 heaped tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 110g cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 300ml whole milk
- 1 egg, beaten
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt and mix everything well.
- Put the chilled cubes of butter (make sure they're cold and solid!) into the bowl, and using your hands, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is combined and resembles bread crumbs. Make sure to use quick and fluttery motions just with your fingertips to rub the butter in, so as to prevent the heat from your hands warming up up the butter.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk. Using a fork, mix in the flour into the milk until everything is just combined. Switch to your hands, gathering up all the pieces so it sticks together to form into one cohesive dough.
- Flour your surface area and plonk your dough out of your bowl. Dust the top of your dough and your rolling pin with some flour.
- Roll out your dough roughly so it's flattened out to a thickness of about 3cm.
- Use a round cutter (either fluted or smooth), measuring about 5cm in diameter to and cut out scones. You can find cutters for cheap pretty easily, but if you don't have a cutter and can't wait for scones, just use a glass instead - press the glass down upside down on the dough to punch out your scones. It won't be as easy as using a cutter but it'll get the job done!). Dip the cutter or your glass in the dough periodically while pressing out your scones so it doesn't stick and it's easier to remove your scone.
- Place the scones on the lined baking sheet. If you have remaining dough scraps after cutting out your scones, you may gather them into a dough again and repeat the process (though do note the scones from this leftover dough will be tougher in texture).
- Brush the top of the scones with the beaten egg using a pastry brush.
- Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving warm with clotted cream (or butter, if you don't have any!) and jam.
If you haven't been preparing for Raya goodies this year, it's never too late. You can bring your friends and family along - time to whip up delicious goodies! ?