Piaya

Unleavened, filled with muscovado and cooked dry on a griddle, not baked.

Vegan.

Ingredients

the dough

• 350 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 60 ml neutral oil
• 180 ml warm water

the filling

• 250 g muscovado sugar
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 tablespoons water

to finish

• 4 tablespoons sesame seeds

Method

1. NO YEAST, NO OVEN. This is a flatbread cooked dry on a hot griddle, and the filling turns to liquid caramel inside while the outside stays pale and blistered.
2. Mix the flour, salt, oil and water to a soft dough and knead 5 minutes. Rest it, covered, 30 minutes.
3. Stir the muscovado with the flour and water to a thick paste. THE FLOUR IS NOT OPTIONAL: plain sugar melts to a thin syrup, finds the weakest point and escapes.
4. Divide the dough into 10. Flatten each, put a tablespoon of filling in, seal, and rest seam down 10 minutes.
5. Roll each one out to about 12 cm and 4 mm thick, gently, from the centre. Press sesame seeds onto both sides.
6. COOK ON A DRY GRIDDLE over a medium heat, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until blistered and freckled. No oil in the pan: oil fries the outside before the middle melts.
7. They are soft hot and firmer cold, and the caramel inside sets to a chewy seam.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes