The New York Times shows how to make crispy Vietnamese-style pandan-leaf grilled sponge cake

Grilled pandan cake has beautiful colors - Photo: Barrett Washburne

The New York Times ' Genevieve Ko spoke with Hannah Pham, the woman who has her own secret recipe for making a version of banh bo nuong with a crispy outer shell and a chewy, pandan-scented filling.

What is the secret to making delicious grilled sponge cake?

Hannah Pham is an Australian of Vietnamese origin and the wife of Ronny Chieng, a Malaysian actor who has participated in famous films such as: Crazy Rich Asians, Model 3 Generative Android (M3GAN) ...

According to The New York Times , Hannah Pham has a special love for grilled rice cakes.

Hannah Pham first wanted to learn how to make this dish because she remembered its taste when she was treated to it by her neighbors.

If she is not on tour with her husband, she often hosts dinners featuring grilled beef cakes.

In 2019, Hannah Pham also posted a video sharing the recipe for this cake on the YouTube channel Pham Bam Kitchen, but she said that it was only in recent years that she found the secret to making delicious and more standard grilled sponge cake.

Grilled sponge cake is called "Honeycomb cake" in English. The cake filling has tiny holes like a honeycomb, made from rice flour, tapioca starch with a stretchy, sticky and soft texture, mixed with fatty coconut milk, vanilla flavoring...

To make the cake more fragrant and flavorful, people can add pandan leaf powder.

Hannah Pham posted a video instructing how to make grilled sponge cake on her YouTube channel Pham Bam Kitchen

According to Hannah Pham's secret, to make the cake have an even height, she uses more baking powder and avoids beating the eggs too much because it can cause the cake to collapse.

When stirring the mixture, she stirs it constantly and filters it through a sieve. This will help the filling to be more airy and even.

In addition to finding an easy-to-make dough, she added her own twist by creating a crispy outer layer for the banh bo nuong.

To get the crispy, caramel-colored crust, she switched to a Bundt pan and reduced the amount of butter she spread on the heated pan.

Although Hannah Pham's version of banh bo nuong has a prominent crispy crust, she says "it's not much different from the traditional version."

Filtering the flour mixture through a sieve will make the cake filling more airy, even, and beautiful - Photo: Barrett Washburne

Decoding the name "grilled rice cake"

According to Ms. Vu Hong Lien - author of the book Rice and baguette: A history of food in Vietnam , the term "baked rice cake" officially appeared in the Vietnamese dictionary in 1895.

The word “cow” in “baked rice cake” describes the way the dough will crawl up the sides of the cup. In the past, baked rice cakes were often cooked over charcoal. The all-encompassing heat of the fire would give the cakes a crispy, golden crust.

According to Hannah Pham, the Bundt cake pan is one of the important factors that makes the baked sponge cake crust crispier - Photo: Chefstore

In the 1960s, people switched to using ovens to bake cakes. Ms. Lien believes that each person will have their own secret recipe for baking cakes and no matter what method is used, the finished product will only be slightly different from the original.

Journalist Genevieve Ko of The New York Times also tasted Hannah Pham's grilled beef cake.

The female journalist said that the cake may not have the exact same flavor as the original, but it was still an "excellent" version and also a way for Hannah Pham to fill the longing for traditional delicacies of her hometown when living halfway around the world.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/the-new-york-times-chi-cach-lam-banh-bo-nuong-la-dua-kieu-viet-nam-vo-gion-rum-20240715132815758.htm