Apam Balik, also called Min Chiang Kueh (面煎粿) is one of the local snacks from my childhood that I used to eat for breakfast or dessert. Nowadays, it is a very common kueh/snack you can find at shopping malls or at hawker centres. They can come in many different fillings like ground peanut, red bean paste, cheese, salted green bean paste, chocolate, black sesame seed and many more. It is more common/traditional to have ground peanuts as the filling. If you have a nut allergy, you might want to avoid some of the Asian desserts!
My preferred filling for Min Chiang Kueh is ground peanut. I had already bought a few packets of ready-made ground peanut with sugar while in Singapore last year so now was an opportunity to use it.
The first obstacle I found to making this recipe was trying to buy roasted peanuts without added salt. In the end I bought raw peanuts and made everything from scratch. You can usually find packets of raw peanuts in the health food aisle of a supermarket or Chinese supermarkets like Wing Yip. To make roasted peanuts, I chopped the raw peanuts in a blender and roasted them in the oven at 160°C for 15 minutes. I stirred the peanuts every 5 minutes of baking. Then added caster sugar to it.
This recipe will make you two big keuhs. To make the keuh, you will need:
- 160g plain flour
- ½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
- ½ tsp yeast
- 1 egg
- 25g granulated cane sugar
- 250ml water
Method:
- Put all the ingredients into a big bowl and mix well.
- Cover with cling film and leave it to rise for at least 5-6 hours before use.
- Heat the pan on a medium fire. Add the mixture. Once it is cooked, add the ground peanuts or any other fillings before folding the keuh in half.
- Remove it from the pan, slice into small portions and serve it warm.
If you would like to have a red bean paste filling, they are quite easy to get from any Chinese supermarket. If you would like to add cheese, grate some Cheddar cheese and add it before you fold the keuh.
