Guest Post: Fluffy Puto Rice Recipe (Filipino Steamed Rice Cakes) (2024)

I’m so excited to share my space with a good friend Maria who resides in Italy with her family.

A little background- My Mama is best friends with Maria’s Nanay Lyn but we didn’t get to spend time (Maria and I) together growing up in Davao. They move to Australia. I got to spend time with Nay’ Lyn’s family for a few days when theystop-over at Manila before heading to Davao for their vacation.

Maria and I both love baking and this topic started our friendship. We chatted about daily life and exchange tips and recipes on baking.

We are planning to open our own cafe – which will happen once we are on the same timezone and country.

Finally, after almost 2 years of convincing her to write a blog post here she is with her Puto Rice (Steamed Rice Cake) Recipe.

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Hi, I’m Maria, your guest writer for today. Like my friend Gail, I’m an expat, married and a mother of 2 – An energetic and headstrong girl, Aurora and a velcro baby boy Lorenzo.

Now, living overseas is great! Wonderful especially if you end up in beautiful places like Australia and Italy, like I did.

But, you know, aside from being nostalgic of your family and friends… you can get food nostalgia too… It’s great being able to afford apples, grapes, McDonalds, potato chips, apple juice, meat etc….But there will come a point when you’ll miss all the food you’ve taken for granted. Like the puto and kutchinta that they peddle, the Bibingka, pan de sal and Ensaymada from the bakery next door… the hopia and sio pao when money’s not too tight.

There will be a day in your life overseas that you’ll be forced to pay7 dollars for 10 crappy pieces of Pan de Sal, or Dry crumby Ensaimada. You’ll complain, of coirse, but only after you ate every crumb of it… swear you’ll never buy it again… then the next month, you’ll be paying same ridiculous money and eating same ridiculously old bread…

I love food, eating, cooking and I love my hard earned money too. So began my quest to replicate the snacks and kakanin from my childhood. I may never be able to replicate my grandmother’s Law- uy na Saluyot, but I swore that one day I will be able to make good Kakanin, I won’t say great since everything is a matter of personal taste. But …wouldn’t it be great to have a foolproof recipe? I tried so many recipes from the net, but a lot of them turned out to be a waste of time, energy and a great source of disappointment.

I’ll start with Puto, it’s my latest obsession… I’m not talking about puto made with flour and topped with cheese. I’m talking about puto from rice or rice flour. 🙂 After lots of experiments and adjustments, and spoilt batches, here is the result!

This takes minimal energy, minimal ingredients, but a lot of patience. Takes 3 1/2 days to make:)

On the first day, mix 100g rice flour and 100g water in a glass jar, like in the picture. Mix well, and leave at room temperature (between 24 to 27C) for 24 hours.

Please don’t be tempted to take short cuts!

24 hours passed, take the jar and add 50 g sugar and 20g cooked rice. Better if it’s a day old rice, yes, bahaw. BUT NOT SPOILED. If you have a stick blender, blend till smooth. If not, use normal blender. Make sure it’s nice and smooth. Again set aside covered loosely with a lid or better if you have a piece of cheese cloth.

Wait another 48 hours, checking every now and then to keep track of the fermentation process. Mixture should start bubbling and thickening along the way. It should have a slightly acidic smell. Sourish and pleasant, not off.

After 48 hours check mixture. It should be bubbly, thick and almost double in volume. You can then use or ferment for another half a day. Taste if it is sweet enough for you

To your mixture, add 1g of double acting baking powder for every 100g.

Mix well, it should thicken to a consistency of whipped cream, or almost.

Put in moulds and steam for 10 to 15 mins. Use a tea towel like in the picture to avoid water dripping on the Puto. Nothing worse than a soggy Puto. Let cool before unmolding.

You may add flavouring. I’ve tried it with pandan and it was swell. Also with Ube halaya up to 2 Tbsp per recipe, so adjust accordingly. If not available, just use Ube extract.

If you can’t get hold of Rice Flour, use short grain rice. 100g rice, wash it thoroughly, and then weigh it. Add enough water to make 200 g total of rice grains and water. Soak 24 hours and follow the same procedure.

There will be a slight difference of texture, using whole rice results in a still fluffy puto but with a bit of gumminess to it.

Another useful tip is, if you plan to make more puto within the next day or two, just refrigerate the jar without washing. This will be useful to start up the fermentation process and makes it even quicker.

You should have soft, fluffy Rice Puto as a result. I made this 5 times, batch after batch before sharing, so have faith and enjoy!