Simple Recipe for Bibingka – a Christmas Rice Cake from the Philippines

Traditionally eaten during the Christmas season in the Philippines, bibingka is a rice cake with a soft and spongy texture, round shape, and slightly sweet and salty flavor.

Filipinos like to eat bibingka warm or hot and together with the purple-colored puto bumbong, another local rice cake that has been inevitably linked to the Christmas celebrations in the Philippines.

They like to eat bibingka and puto bumbong after attending dawn masses or Simbang Gabi from December 16 to December 24 each year.

They usually eat these rice cakes together with tsokolate (hot chocolate) or salabat (ginger tea).

Bibingka, puto bumbong, tsokolate and salabat are commonly bought right outside the Catholic churches in the Philippines during the Christmas season.

Types of Bibingka

Bibingka can be easily recognized for its banana leaf lining – usually charred to add to the delicate flavors of bibingka – that cover the top and bottom parts of the rice cake.

Its ingredients span from the common rice flour to the uncommon chocolate.

The variety in ingredients has spawned several kinds of bibingka in the Philippines. The most popular ones include:

• Bibingkang Galapong: Perhaps the most common type of bibingka is the bibingkang galapong, made from rice flour and water and topped with salted eggs, butter, and grated coconut.
• Bibingkang Malagkit: The bibingka with a square shape is the bibingkang malagkit, which is made from sticky rice flour and sliced into small blocks.
• Bibingkang Mandaue: Made in Mandaue City in the Philippines is the bibingkang Mandaue, which uses tuba or palm sap alcoholic drink to substitute for yeast. Bibingkang Mandaue has an interesting acidic aftertaste.
• Cassava Bibingka: This bibingka is made from cassava flour and looks quite similar to the typical pudding.

Traditional Way of Preparing Bibingka

Bibingka is traditionally prepared using terra cotta containers, charcoals, banana leaves, as well as common ingredients like rice flour, eggs, water and coconut milk.

The ingredients are poured into containers, heated, toasted, and then flavored.

Toppings may include grated coconut, butter, margarine, salted eggs, kesong puti or cheese, and sometimes pinipig or pounded young rice grains.

Preparing this Christmas rice cake can be time-consuming.

Quick and Easy Recipe for Bibingka

Because bibingka can sometimes be complicated to make, many Filipinos have created a moderately easy way to prepare this rice cake.

Ingredients for Making Bibingka

• baking powder – 1 tablespoon
• banana leaves – 6 pieces; round shape; about 9 inches in diameter
• butter – ½ cup
• coconut milk – 1 ½ cup
• eggs – 3
• sticky rice flour – ½ cup
• rice flour – 2 cups
• salted egg – 1 piece; cut into wedges
• sugar – 1 cup

Ingredients for Bibingka Toppings

• butter – 1 tablespoon
• cheese – cheddar cheese or Edam cheese; 1 tablespoon
• grated coconut – 1 tablespoon
• sugar – 1 tablespoon

Tools for Making Bibingka

• broiler
• oven
• tart pans – 6

Instructions for Making Bibingka

• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• While preheating the oven, brush butter onto the banana leaves.
• Line the pans with banana leaves.
• Beat the eggs.
• Combine the eggs with butter and coconut milk and mix everything thoroughly.
• Put rice flour, sticky rice flour, baking powder, and sugar together in bowl and again mix thoroughly.
• Combine egg and rice mixtures.
• Pour mixtures equally into the pans.
• Top the mixtures with salted eggs.
• Bake for 25 minutes.
• When the rice cakes are already baked, brush butter onto them.
• Place the rice cakes in a broiler until they turn slightly brown at the top. This may take about two minutes.
• When done, add toppings to the rice cakes.

Ta-da-dah! Your bibingka is ready. Serve or eat it while warm. Merry Christmas!

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