What is Palitaw?

Palitaw is a Philippine dessert and refreshments made of simple rice flour dough that is cooked and then covered with coconut and sesame seeds. Small, flat rice cakes are traditionally consumed during the holidays, but can enjoy it at any time. The texture of the finished cakes can range from very damp and fine to chewing and rubber, depending on the preferences of the cook. Although there are several variations, Palitaw is usually prepared according to the same basic recipe without any changes. It is similar to other types of sweet, cooked rice cakes that are produced in countries such as Japan and South Korea. Authentic preparation includes cracking of dried sticky rice and then soaked in water overnight. After soaking, it breaks into the dough with the addition of water as needed. If this method is used, RD almost always requires soaking in water before use, sometimes to soften a very strong shell around the rice and at other times to remove part of the starch before cooking.

In many countries, instead of laboriously humming sticky rice for powder or dough, sacks of prepared rice flour are available to buy. Premade flour is in fact a preferred method for making Palitaw at home. It is not necessary to use sticky rice for the recipe, which means that regular rice flour can be used instead without real bad effects.

The amount of water in the body can help determine what the final texture will be. The use of as little water as possible and the formation of hard dough creates a palitaw that is chewing, rubber and dense. Adding additional water to create a looser dough will result in a cake that has a softer texture.

Once the dough is the desired consistency, the balls are created that are flattened to the discs. These discs are dropped into a pot of boiling water and leave to cook anywhere from one to five minutes, depending on the density and ingredients in the cakes. As soon as the discs start to rise to pOvrch water, boiled. At this point, they can be removed from the water, dried on some towels and then soaked in sugar, roasted sesame seeds and crushed coconuts. They are usually served cold.

Some Palitaws can be filled with ingredients such as fruit or nuts, or let sesame seeds integrate into dough cooking. However, these methods can cause problems for home chefs as adding ingredients to the dough can cause it to disintegrate when cooking. Palitaw can be frozen after completion for long -term storage.