Kaya Spread

Kaya means rich in Malay. In my family, the hokkiens called it kaya too but with a more chinese accent, if you know what I mean. Kaya is defined as coconut jam in wikipedia. I don't like thinking of them as curd, rather I'll call them spread. Srikaya or serikaya are green in colour, the result of blending coconut milk with the pandan leaves. Kaya is just brown caramel spread, sometimes not even flavoured with pandan. In the end, they both still fall within the kaya family and are equallly delicious.

In Malaysia, we usually slap kaya on toast. In fact, there are two slices of bread, toasted to perfection, with a side slapped with Planta margarine or butter and the other one slapped with this rich kaya. These two slices of toasts are sandwiched together and are commonly called 'Roti Kahwin' which also means 'Married Bread'. They are usually served alongside 2 free range half-boiled chicken eggs. Kaya is commonly served with Pulut Tai Tai as well, the blue Peranakan kuih. Finally, kaya can also be found in the form of steamed kaya buns or just kaya balls.


Kaya spread (an original recipe by BakingQuinn)
(makes enough to fill up an Ikea Lingonberry jar, you do the maths)

1/2 cup coconut cream (I use Chaokoh brand)
2 extra large eggs (my eggs are a minimum weight of 67g)
1 cup castor sugar
2 pandan/screwpine leaves, teared and knotted

Remove 3 tbsp castor sugar and set aside for later use.

Whisk coconut cream, remaining castor sugar and eggs until well combined and more than half the sugar has dissolved. Pour everything into a slow cooker. Drop the bunch of knotted pandan leaves in as well. Set it to high for 2 hours 30mins, stirring 4 times in between; that is equivalent to stirring once every 30mins.

In the last 20mins of cooking time left, caramelize the remaining 3 tbsp of sugar reserved earlier in a non-stick pan. When it turned an amber dark colour, turn off the heat and pour the caramel into the slow cooker mixture, stirring with a silicone balloon whisk at the same time. It will bubble up a little but it will not splash. Cook it further until time is up and off the switch.

When it's cooled down a little, run a hand blender through the thick mixture until it's all smooth. Pour it into a sterilized glass jar and cover tightly with the lid. Let it cool to room temperature before spreading and keeping it in the fridge.

Some points to note, you need not pour all the caramelized sugar in if you do not like a too dark colour of the kaya. You can use 3/4 cup of sugar instead of a cup. Any more less sugar will not be recommended since sugar is what preserves the jam. You can make serikaya by blending the coconut milk with the leaves and you'll probably need more leaves. You can only make serikaya with fresh pandan leaves. Try using frozen pandan leaves and you'll get a greyish looking jam. I suppose by now, you could tell I'm talking from past horrible experience, don't you?Yes you can use pandan paste and all and I do have them in the pantry, but I'm in the mood for au natural today so be it!

Let me share a secret with you, I lick my pink whisk clean before I wash them. Don't pretend like you don't!