Kuih Loyang / Kuih Rose / Honeycomb Cookies
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Usher in The Year of Tiger!
Seven more sleeps till the Lunar New Year, as you probably would have noticed that there is no slacking off in the ATFT’s kitchen and I’ve been churning up lots of my favourite festive cookies. A fellow Malaysian lady found my pineapple tarts post and she decided to order them from me! I had no intentions of making money by selling them as it is all just for fun and I made them simply to share with friends. But who am I kidding? Too many hands in a jar means my own supply is almost all gone, and there will be none left by end of the week. So I will be making some more for the Chinese New Year dinner party this weekend, and since I am going to get my hands dirty, I have decided to accept the order and make a whole lot more… 200 pineapple tarts to be exact. (‘What was I thinking?’)
Pineapple tarts and peanut cookies are not the only cookies I’ve prepared for the new year. I almost forgot that I actually brought some traditional Chinese cookie moulds back from Malaysia last year. Hence I decided to use this pretty rosette mould and make one of my favourite Chinese New Year’s cookies, the Kuih Loyang. Funny how this cookie has always been known as the Honeycomb biscuit/cracker since I was little kid because of its shape. Kuih Loyang, is also known as Kuih Rose for the obvious reason, the rosette brass mould is what we used to make the pretty cookie with.
Kuih Loyang is a popular snack in Malaysia and widely available throughout the country, especially during Chinese New Year. The cookie is a lot crunchier than love letter, with a sweet aromatic flavour from the coconut cream used in the recipe. If you have never had kuih loyang before, let just say it is highly addictive and I can easily eat a whole container of it in one seating.
Making kuih loyang is not easy. Unless you have a little helper standing next to you ready to fetch the cookie out of the hot oil, if not then you will need full agility with great multi tasking skills to tackle it. Unfortunate, I am the latter, holding the rosette mould in my right hand, and a skewer stick on my left, slaving over a pot of hot oil, working like a well oiled machine in one single movement repetitively, I churned up about 50 kuih loyang cookies over an hour or so.
The recipe I used is from Lily’s Wai Sek Hong blog. However, I found the amount of plain flour used in the recipe are little too much in comparison to the rice flour. Rice flour is what makes the cookie earth shattering crunchy, where as I found the first batch of kuih loyang I made were a little thick and doughy especially in the center. So I revised the recipe a little by adding more water and rice flour into the mixture which resembling a pancake batter. Instantly the batter is a lot easier to work with and just drop out of the mould with a little jiggle on the mould.
Random fact: Do you know Chinese New Year also falls on the same date as Valentine’s Day this year? Instead of giving roses, why not make this beautiful Kuih Loyang cookies for the special one? If you have the rosette mould, that is.
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Kuih Loyang / Kuih Rose / Honeycomb Cookies (yield 40-50pcs)
Ingredients
400 ml coconut milk
200 gram all-purpose flour
200 gram rice flour
2 large eggs
170 gram sugar
200ml water
1/2 tsp salt
Oil for deep frying (I used vegetable oil)
Method
1. Add coconut milk, eggs, sugar, water and salt in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined and all sugar are dissolved.
2. Sift and all all-purpose flour and rice flour into the mixture. Whisk until well combined with no lumps. If is too thick, add one tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture resembling of a pancake batter.
3. Heat up oil in a wok/saucepan on medium heat. Tips: dip a wooden chopstick into the hot oil, if the chopstick is bubbling up, it is ready.
4. Preheat brass moulds in the hot oil, about 2-3 minutes. (The moulds have to be hot enough for batter to cling on them)
5. CAUTIOUS: Dip hot mould into batter for 10 seconds. Make sure batter coats only the bottom and sides of mould, never over the top.
6. Slowly lift it up and dip mould back in hot oil. Shake to release from mould and fry until golden brown on both sides.
7. Take it out from hot oil, and let it cool over paper towel to soak up all the oil.
8. Repeat until all batter is used up. Store in air-tight containers.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
This is always my favourite!! Happy year to Tiger!
.-= mycookinghut´s last blog ..Restaurant Review – Inamo =-.
Beautiful! Great idea to make these cookies for Valentine’s Day; less commercial and more personal. Thanks for the recipe.
.-= joey@FoodiePop´s last blog ..Living Room On The Bay (Indonesian) – Walsh Bay =-.
Oooh! These have coconut milk! Delicious! They look beautiful Billy…bring on the year of the tiger!
.-= Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul´s last blog ..Fresco De Piña y Arroz-Chilled Pineapple and Rice drink =-.
They are beautiful cookies Billy! I would much rather receive these than roses any day!
.-= Trissa´s last blog ..A Berry Nice Berry Mousse =-.
Simply gorgeous! Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day
.-= foodwink´s last blog ..Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai’s La Rochelle, Tokyo =-.
Looks fantastic. I’d rather have these cookies than roses any day!
.-= Y´s last blog ..Having your cake and eating your tart too =-.
Ah crap… i’m reading this at work and I want one right now.
the photos are looking good billy! i always have problem with dark backgrounds, prefer white and light colors
.-= ladyironchef´s last blog ..Forlino: Romantic Restaurant at One Fullerton =-.
My late grandma who was a Nyonya made this a lot! Another one is called subang kuih that shapes like round earrings. Alas, now only my aunt know how to make this.
.-= Rasa Malaysia´s last blog ..Cornflake Cookies =-.
Honeycomb Cookies those are great and if you can make them for your love ones, they will never forget you. And I must say beautiful photos, Thank you
.-= LetsEat´s last blog ..Great Food vs Great Experience Which one is more important? =-.
Very pretty. One of my favorite cookies, any time of the year!
I’m going to have to get some when we go back to West Malaysia later this week!
.-= Nate @ House of Annie´s last blog ..Nutella Rocks; No-Knead SUCKS =-.
Can you send some biscuits down to Melb, please? I had made the peanut cookies over the weekend, but couldn’t be bother to make others! I actually saw Kuih Loyang for sale here at a local Chinese shop, imported from Malaysia, manufactured in Johor. They named it “bee hives”!
Haven’t tried it for a long time. Hope to find one during my CNY visiting. Looks so lovely! Definitely a perfect gift for this Valentine Day!
.-= food-4tots´s last blog ..Teriyaki salmon in a parcel (年年庆有余） =-.
Ohhhh these are fabulous!!!! Cookies or flowers for Valentine’s? Cookies of course!!!
.-= Trisha´s last blog ..First Oestrogenic Gastronomy Cooking Club =-.
Oh how I miss these, I admire your dedication to do them singlehandedly! They turned out perfect. Good luck with the pineapple tarts
Hi Billy, can’t wait till we get our hands on the stashes of Pineapple tarts!
I remember this kuih. People like to prepare this cookies especially during celebrations. I might say it is a Malaysian cookies.
.-= foodtale´s last blog ..Easiest Peach Pie Ever =-.
Yum, the cookies look so crunchy and delicate! I’d definitely prefer them over flowers anyday!
.-= Jacq´s last blog ..Pizza e Birra, Surry Hills =-.
They look fantastic! I think my mother may have left me one of those moulds…will have to check it out!
.-= Su-Lin´s last blog ..Mini Spicy Shrimp Rolls =-.
Ooh my I loved these ones! Now I know what you mean by addictive when I happily munched down your batch and wished for more! I can’t believe I never really had Kuih Loyang before but now I definitely have to buy the mold now
.-= Karen´s last blog ..Taco Tuesdays at Flying Fajita Sistas =-.
My Mom’s friend used to make these and share them with us. I haven’t had them in years. I always did love how crispy and buttery tasting they were. Thanks for bringing back such sweet memories for me.
.-= Carolyn Jung´s last blog ..A Cookie Perfect for Any Occasion =-.
I love the takeaway pack with the cookies…..I knew it had to be Aussie cause my friend sent me an ice-cream book (from Oz) and it has a box just like that………. Stunning photos!
I love this treat. We call it ‘achappam’ in malayalam (south India). We used to have it for tea. I wish I had a mold, so I can make it. Isn’t it interesting how we share the same food even when we are from different countries?
Thank you for the recipe and tempting pics
Billy,
I was just thinking of making these! I’ll have to give your recipe a go. I used to love watching my mom making them when I was a kid. Like magic! You should do a video!
.-= steph´s last blog ..Pan-Roasted Mussels with OS =-.
My mum made these once- they’re so so good! The method of making these is so interesting. Where did you get your mould from?
.-= Von´s last blog ..Almost New Year….. =-.
I used to eat this cookie in Thailand, where it is called khanom dok jok (water lettuce flower cookie). So crispy and delicious! I must find a mold, now that you’ve supplied the recipe.
Where I come from these rose cookies are called Achappam and a christmas treat.
Of course, they’re so well loved, we eat them all the year round! LOL
Btw, our traditional recipes are rice flour based giving them a delightful crunch.
Happy New year.
Nice cookies, though the mould reminds me of brass knuckles.
Where can I get a mould in Australia? (I am in Perth)
I like your blog and all the nice pictures!
Please please please can you tell me where to buy these gorgeous cookies or at least where I can buy the molds to make them. I live in Sydney. I have been after this recipe and trying to find the cookie molds for years ever since I tried one of these cookies at a party. Regards Jo
Lovely! Will try it this year.. 1st thing is to find the
mould. I believe it wont be hard to find it here in Malaysia
Great recipe. Work like a charm. Just need to add another 100ml water in my case… must be the coconut cream. So nice. Thanks ATFT! Added some red nam yue for additional savory kick. love it.
Tried with corn starch instead of flour just for the sake of it. even better and less prone to overly brown. Fantastic cookies.
oh i cannot believe it.this delicacy u say is from malaysia is my favourite memory of my native place.no its not malaysia but my own kerala.this one known as ‘achappam” is very popular among syrian christians of kerala.the sad part is none of the younger generation dont know how to make them or dont want the hassle .thus its a memory associated with grandparents.