Chinese New Year Treats - Bee Hive Snacks

I quite like beehive snacks, or as the Hokkiens called it "beet phang siew".  The Cantonese refer to it as "mat fung tau". For as long as I could remember, every year during Chinese New Year AuntieK's mother-in-law will give us some of her homemade beehive snacks. This year, we made some our own.

The downside of asking and elder about recipe is, things are done in agak-agak (estimation). The ingredients are all shown in the picture:

4 eggs
3/4 bowl of sugar
milk of one coconut, squeezed fresh, approx. 1 small bowl
1 big bowl of rice flour
2 soup spoon all purpose flour



Step1: First, get a big pot, something that will most likely fit all the ingredients plus some room for movement. Crack in eggs and add in the sugar.



Step 2: Stir until egg and sugar mixture is mixed thoroughly.



Step 3: Add in the santan (coconut milk) and stir until it is evenly mixed.



Step 4: Now, add in the flour (Mix the rice flour and all purpose flour thoroughly first) and stir until everything is mixed.






Step 5: Run the mixture through a sieve to remove clumps.



This, is the mould. Available in baking goods store kitchen utensil stores, etc.



Step 6: Heat up sufficient oil in a wok. When the oil is hot enough, leave the mould in the oil to heat it up. Dry the mould if you washed it beforehand.



Step 7: Transfer some of the mixture into a clean, deep bowl. Dip the heated mould into the mixture. The mixture will coat the mould because the mould is hot.



Step 8: Now quickly transfer the mould into the hot oil. Gently shake off the mixture, and the formed beehive snack will separate from the mould. Repeat until the mixture finishes.



For the first few beehives it is normal to get not so nice result. Try to get the perfect beehives by experimenting with the temperature of the oil.



Step 9: It is important to have someone to look after the frying beehive snacks while another one make more beehive snacks. Remember to Scoop and throw away all those stray dough or they will burn and stick to the beautifully fried beehive snacks.

Step 10: Prepare some kitchen towels on plates to let the beehives cool down. The kitchen towel also helps soaking up excessive oil.

Store them in airtight container and wait until Chinese New Year. This porject is a joint effort of Riceball, MommyC and AuntieK.