Puto seco

Not steamed and not a cake: a dry cornflour biscuit that collapses on the tongue.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 250 g cornflour
• 100 g plain flour
• 150 g caster sugar
• 120 g butter, soft
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Method

1. THE NAME IS THE TRAP. Puto is steamed; puto seco is BAKED, and it is a biscuit, not a cake. If you have arrived here looking for the soft steamed thing, you want the puto page.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until pale, then the yolks.
3. Sift in the cornflour, plain flour, baking powder and salt and work it to a stiff, sandy dough. It will look too dry and crumbly. That is correct -- the cornflour is what makes it collapse on the tongue, and more liquid makes a shortbread instead.
4. Press firmly into small balls, about 15 g, and flatten slightly on a lined tray.
5. Bake at 150C for 20 to 22 minutes. They should stay PALE -- barely coloured at the base and not at all on top. Browned, they taste of toast rather than of nothing much, which is the point of them.
6. They firm as they cool and keep for two weeks in a tin.

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