Recipe: Tasty Biko (Filipino Rice Cake)

Biko (Filipino Rice Cake). Biko (pronounced bee-koh), a rice cake, is a native Filipino delicacy or 'kakanin' where glutinous rice is cooked with coconut milk and brown sugar then topped Latik. The latik can be either in curd form or syrup. Traditionally, biko is served on a bilao, a round wooden bamboo tray, lined with coconut-oiled.

Biko is a Filipino dessert made with glutinous rice, coconut milk, and brown sugar. It's an easy and simple homemade dessert that is popularly served at Rice is a staple in Filipino cuisine (and many other Asian countries). From rice porridge, rice noodles, rice cakes, and rice cereal, rice is used in. You can have Biko (Filipino Rice Cake) using 6 ingredients and 9 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Biko (Filipino Rice Cake)

1. It's 2 cups of glutinous rice.
2. You need 4 cups of coconut milk (kakang gata/ 2 cans of coconut milk will do 400 ml each).
3. It's 2 cups of water.
4. It's 1 cup of brown sugar.
5. Prepare 6 drops of ube essence (optional).
6. You need 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.

Biko (BI-KOH) is the Filipino term for sweet sticky rice cake. This version of biko doesn't use black/purple sticky rice. Usually my mom and others I know, mix sweet rice with black rice to give it that dark. Biko is a type of Filipino rice cake that uses glutinous rice rather than rice flour.

Biko (Filipino Rice Cake) step by step

1. Wash glutinous rice in a pot or rice cooker. Drain excess water. Add 2 cups of water. Cook glutinous rice like you would with regular white rice..
2. On a pan, pour 2 cups of coconut milk and sugar. Set to medium heat and bring to a boil..
3. Add 6 drops of ube essence to mixture (optional)..
4. Add rice to the mixture. Constant mixing (folding motion) is necessary to prevent crusting at the bottom of the pan..
5. Keep mixing till sticky enough that it looks like a dough..
6. Put biko in a container and push with a spatula to even out surface..
7. Cooking latik: In a separate pan, pour 1 can/2 cups of coconut milk. Bring to boil and set to high heat. Keep stirring until paste-like consistency is observed then add vegetable oil to aid in toasting the coconut milk..
8. Once browned remove from heat, and drain and squeeze excess oil with a paper towel..
9. Spread latik over biko. Serve and enjoy..

It's mixed with coconut milk and sugar. So this cake is not cake-like at all, but rather a bit sticky and chewy. It may take some getting used to, but if you're adventurous, this is something you definitely want to try. There are many variations on biko, but this biko recipe will give you a sweet dark brown-sugared sticky rice cake topped with a caramelized coconut sauce and latik (crispy coconut curds). Each decadent bite of this traditionally Filipino dessert is filled with flavors of palm sugar, dark brown sugar, and rich.