Bánh ít nhân hạt dẻ (Pyramid sticky rice cake with chestnut filling) - A new version of Bánh ít from

Bánh ít is a type of popular snack in the South of Vietnam. Traditionally, its filling is made with mung beans and peanuts and it is wrapped with banana leaves. But it’s difficult to find banana leaves where I live and I want to do some change for the filling so here comes the bánh ít version of Chez Thao.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

400g sticky rice flour with pandan leaf flavor

350ml warm water

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

50g smashed palm sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

For the filling:

A can of cooked chestnut (500g)

100g scraped coconut

50g smashed palm sugar

100ml coconut milk

Cooking oil

Parchment paper

Procedure:

For the filling:

- Smash the chestnut well

- Add scraped coconut, smashed palm sugar and coconut milk

- Cook the mixture in low heat until it gets dry and sticks together

- Divide the mixture into 12 portions

For the dough:

- Mix all the ingredients of the dough together

- Knead the dough until it get smooth

- Divide the dough into 12 portions

Wrapping:

- Press each piece of dough gently, add a portion of coconut filling on the center, roll and cover it well to make a ball so we have totally 12 balls

- Cover the balls with cooking oil

- Cut the parchment into 12 squares of 20cmx20cm

- Fold each piece of square parchment paper into a funnel shape

- Put the the ball into the funnel and fold the edges carefully to make a pyramid

- Do until you finish all the balls

Cooking:

- Bring to steam in 25 to 30 minutes

- Can be served when hot or cold

Notes:

If you can’t find sticky rice flour with pandan leaf flavor, then use 400g normal sticky rice flour and 350ml pandan leaf juice. The water/juice should be warm so that the dough would not get muddy.

Depending on your taste, you can add more or less sugar.

Depending on the flour, you can add more or less water so that the dough should not be too dry or too wet.