
It’s Chinese New Year this week, so I’m sharing an easy, lower sugar Chinese new year cake recipe, also called nian gao. It’s a must for the new year as it symbolizes growth and prosperity.
It’s a steamed brown sugar mochi cake. It tastes good on it’s own but the best way to is make is French toast style, dipped in egg and pan fried!
My grandmother used to make tons of these every year for eating and gifting. She would spend hours hand mixing the batter and steaming the cakes over the wok.
But I’ve found the easiest and quickest way to make the same tasting cakes using a 8Qt pressure cooker and just 4 simple ingredients.
You can buy these cakes at most Chinese groceries, like T&T Supermarket, but I find them too sweet.
My recipe uses lower sugar, and it’s just right amount for me. If you like yours sweeter, increase the brown sugar to 50 or 100g more.

The 4 simple ingredients:
-Glutinous rice flour- make sure it’s glutinous and not just regular rice flour or it won’t work! Glutinous rice flour is made from short-grain rice vs long grain rice for regular rice flour. 1 bag is 400g, so it’s the perfect amount for this cake!
-Water
-Brown sugar- to give the color and sweetness
-Oil- to make the rice cake taste smoother
Use a 4L Pyrex storage container for steaming…I think every single person owns one of these containers.

You also have to use the 8Qt Instant pot or it won’t fit the 4L storage container.
Enjoy this as a dessert to welcome the New Year.
Remember, make it French toast style to totally change the taste and it’s just much better!
Wishing you a healthy, joyous, wealthy, and successful year ahead!


Easy, 4 Ingredient Low Sugar Nian Gao
Ingredients:
400ml Water
200g Brown Sugar
2 tsp Oil
400g (1 bag) Glutinous Rice Flour
Instructions
1. Boil water in a small pot, dissolve brown sugar in water. Cool to room temperature.
2. Add oil and glutinous rice flour.
3. Use hand mixer to blend until smooth.
4. Line a 4L round Pyrex storage container with parchment paper. This will save you time trying to pry the cake off from the container and cleaning it!
Pour the batter into the lined container.
5. Place a trivet inside your 8Qt Instant Pot. Pour in 1 cup of water.
6. Cover your container with alumium foil. Cook on high pressure for 60 mins, natural release for 20 mins.
7. Take the cake out of the steamer. It will look ugly and uncooked, don’t worry- it’s supposed to look this way!
Allow it to rest overnight or until completely cooled.
8. Remove the cake and parchment paper from the container. Flip onto a plate and peel off the parchment paper.
Add a date for decor!

0 Comments