Kueh Lompang without Alkaline Water

Today I wanted to make some tea time snacks for my kids and of course for myself as well. Yeah I know I have a sweet tooth and I'm not doing much about it although I should. Maybe tomorrow I will try to control my sweet cravings....

Since I am now living in a serviced apartment and I don't have all my pantry ingredients with me, I had to do with whatever I had in the apartment. So the only thing that came to my mind was kueh lompang. I had all the ingredients that I needed except for one, alkaline water or air abu soda. Alkaline water actually gives a nice bouncy and chewy texture to the kueh lompang but since I did not have any, I just came up with this version.  It turned out pretty good and it did not have the alkaline water smell that kueh lompangs normally have.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups rice flour 

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1 cup of dark brown sugar or gula melaka

1 1/2 cups of water, to make brown sugar syrup

1/4 teaspoon of salt

some screwpine or pandan leaves, cleaned and knotted

some freshly grated coconut mixed with a pinch of salt and microwaved for about 30 seconds for serving

Directions

1.  Prepare a steamer and some rice bowls or tea cups to steam the kueh lompangs. 

2.  In a pan add the brown sugar or gula melaka, screwpine or pandan leaves and the 1 1/2 

      cups of water. Heat the sugar and water on medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. 

      Remove the pandan leaves and strain the sugar syrup into a measuring jug or measuring 

      cup.  Add more water if needed to make 2 cups of sugar syrup.

2.  Sift the rice flour, tapioca flour and salt into a bowl.  Pour in the two cups of sugar syrup 

      and mix well. Set it aside

3.  Once the water in the steamer comes to boil, place the rice bowls or tea cups in the 

      steamer and let it heat for about 5 minutes.

4.  Then gently mix and pour in the kueh lompang mixture into the hot tea cups or hot rice 

      bowls in the steamer. Cover and steam for about 30 minutes if using the small tea cups or       for about 1 hour is using the rice bowls.  

5.  Insert a wet skewer into the kueh lompangs to check if the they are cooked. If the skewer         comes out clean, then the kueh lompangs are done.

6.  Remove the kueh lompangs from the steamer and let it cool completely. Serve with the           grated coconut.