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Sticky valentines

I had surely made a batch of brownies with a prinkling of candy hearts and sugar crystals but this day of hearts but I'd rather blog about my housemate's homemade tikoy or Nian Gao or Chinese New Year Cake.

TIkoy's are traditionally given during the Chinese New Year celebration, packaged in red boxes with gold prints it is prepared by slicing it into bite squares, dipping in beaten egg and fried in butter. As a child it is something I look forward to (my mom is half chinese and we get a number of boxes each year) because it's not everyday that we get to fry these soft, chewy and sticky sweet treats but even then I must say that even few bites of these treats can be overwhelming - I blame it on the excess oil which seem to seep in the tikoy no matter how hard I try to pat off with paper towels. Thus a couple of mouthfuls is all I can muster.

This year though I have eaten quite an amount of TIkoy because my roommate's home made version is not dripping in oil but is still sticky sweet and laced with young coconut strips. She could not give me the exact recipe but I guess it is a mixture of: glutinous rice flour, fresh coconut milk, condensed milk and young coconut strips. It was then poured into a deep baking dish and baked until the top is golden while basting the top with more coconut milk.

I hope to get to see how she makes it and get the exact measurements next time. HOpe to get a better picture to show you too because I ate my share before I could take photos

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