Puto (Filipino Steamed Rice Cakes)

Small, white, fluffy steamed cakes of plain rice flour, coconut milk and baking powder. The counterpart to butter mochi: the same grain, the non-glutinous flour, and a completely different texture.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here as the showcase for one flour in the Flour section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 4 cups rice flour (not glutinous)
• 1½ cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
• Non-stick cooking spray or melted butter for the moulds

Directions

1. Batter. Whisk the dry ingredients together. Stir in the water and coconut milk until smooth, and strain through a fine sieve.
2. Rest. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. Fill. Grease the moulds and fill them three-quarters full.
4. Steam. Arrange in one layer over boiling water. Wrap the lid in a cloth so condensation cannot drip onto the cakes, and steam about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool and unmould.

Notes

Source Adapted from Lalaine Manalo, “Puto,” Kawaling Pinoy (read through the Wayback Machine).

Not in the source The source gives volumes only, so no gram weights are given here, and the mould size is not stated.

Why this flour Plain rice flour steams into a light, fluffy, non-sticky cake; glutinous rice flour would make it dense and sticky. The overnight rest lets the rice flour hydrate, since it takes up water much more slowly than wheat.

Gluten-free by ingredient: safe for coeliac disease only if every ingredient — flour, starch, baking powder — is labelled gluten-free. Naturally gluten-free flours are often contaminated with wheat in milling.

The Flour section of the Food site covers the history, the science, milling, label systems and every flour used here.