x
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • About
  • Let’s talk!
Instagram Pinterest BlogLovin
Home › Asian-Inspired › Salted Egg Yolk Crystal Sago Cakes

Facebook0Tweet0Pin0

link to follow on instagram  link to follow on Pinterest  Follow on Bloglovin

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Constellation Inspiration

Constellation Inspiration

A Dessert Blog

  • Cookbook
  • Tutorials
  • About
    • Press
  • Contact
  • Recipes:
  • cake
  • cookies
  • cream puffs
  • tarts
  • bars
  • candy
  • Asian-inspired
  • seasonal
    • Valentines
    • halloween
    • christmas
Jump to Recipe
Asian-Inspired

Salted Egg Yolk Crystal Sago Cakes

by: Amy on: Aug 15, 2019

Growing up, my mom and I would visit the same small Chinese mall every Friday night. The mall was a bit rundown and the there were more closed stores than ones open for business but that did not...

Review  or  Print Recipe

Growing up, my mom and I would visit the same small Chinese mall every Friday night. The mall was a bit rundown and the there were more closed stores than ones open for business but that did not stop us from developing this weekly ritual because it had the best food court. Every stall specialized in a different type of Chinese cuisine (minus the one random bento box stall at one corner of the food court) and everything tasted more homemade than similar to fast food. My mom’s go-to was a stall that specialized in soy-marinated dishes but that was not what she ordered. She knew on the right hand side of the display case of marinated meats, they would have freshly pan-fried whole fish and because she was a regular, they would always give her two of them for the price of one. My order changed weekly but you could always count on my order being some sort of noodle dish. What made our Friday night food court tradition a real tradition was that we would always end our food court date by ordering a box of six mini crystal sago cakes filled with custard or red bean from a Taiwanese dessert stall. The translucent “cakes” were more of a mochi consistency than what you would normally associate with cake. You can see each individual sago pearl that makes up the cake and it’s chewy and sticky nature is what made me love them.

We ordered them so much that my mom and I decided to make some at home to satisfy the craving during the weeks we could not make it to the dessert stall. Crystal sago cakes are extremely simple, and I am not making that statement as someone who makes desserts all the time. I am making that statement as the 12 year old self that I was when I started making them. You only need few ingredients: sago pearls, sugar, oil, and a filling of choice. Sometimes I would omit the filling entirely and add a touch more sugar to the sago.

Today I’m sharing the recipe for a standard crystal sago cake but also a recipe for a sweet-and-salty salted egg yolk filling. Salted egg yolk custard is my absolutely favourite filling for any Chinese dessert. Cue the salted egg yolk steamed buns at dim sum, these salted egg yolk mochi balls, and these salted egg yolk cream puffs. I recommend that you freeze the filling so that it can be easily scooped into the sago pearl batter. This will create a centre of liquid salted egg yolk custard instead of having it seep everywhere throughout the cake, though the latter is just as tasty (I tried both ways). I also like to keep any extra filling to serve on the side because it is oh so good.

 

Happy baking!

Salted Egg Yolk Crystal Sago Cakes

Makes 6 crystal sago cakes
By Amy

Ingredients

Crystal Sago Cake

  • 1/2 cup uncooked sago pearls
  • 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
  • 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

Salted Egg Yolk Filling

  • 4 cooked salted duck egg yolks
  • 5 tablespoons icing sugar, (more or less depending on preference)
  • 2 teaspoons heavy cream

Instructions

  • Measure half a cup of dried sago pearls and soak them in boiling water for one hour, stirring the pearls occasionally so that they do not clump together.
  • While the pearls are soaking, make the salted egg yolk filling. If using whole salted duck eggs, separate the yolk from the egg white and place the yolks into a small bowl. Add powdered sugar and cream into the bowl and mix well so that the mixture is smooth. If any clumps remain, put the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Place mixture in the freezer so that it firms up and is easy to scoop into the sago cakes.
  • After an hour, pearls should be somewhat translucent but still have a white centre. Pour the pearls through a fine-mesh strainer to drain the your water.
  • Pour the pearls into a bowl and mix with half tablespoon of oil and four tablespoons of sugar.
  • Using a spoon, spoon pearls into the cavity of a muffin cup/tin so that the cavity is 1/3 full. Spoon into 1-2 teaspoons of the salted egg yolk mixture. The filling is easier to work with the firmer it is. Cover the filling with more pearls until the cavity is 2/3 full. The sago cakes will not expand too much when steaming even if you over fill it.
  • Over medium heat, steam the sago cakes for 15 minutes until the pearls are see through and no white centres in the pearls remain.
  • Let sago cakes cook 15 minutes before removing from muffin tin. Serve warm or at room temperature. Feel free to serve any additional salted egg yolk filling on the side!

more like this:

Salted Honey Pistachio Tangyuan 湯圓 Rice Balls

Grilled Chewy Rice Cake (燒餅)

Kabocha Salted Egg Yolk Mooncakes with Sago Pearls

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

a sweet hello.

Welcome to Constellation Inspiration, a buttercream-coated journal of recipes, stories, and love letters that are sweet to read, and even sweeter to eat. These love letters are dedicated to you.

sneak peaks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

featured

never not making @eatchofood’s (veg!) hot dog fl never not making @eatchofood’s (veg!) hot dog flower buns 🌼

#bakefromscratch #milkbread #breadbaking #breadmaking
tanghulu strawberries (冰糖葫蘆) 🍓✨ tang tanghulu strawberries (冰糖葫蘆) 🍓✨

tanghulu is sometimes called bingtanghulu, with the word ‘bing’ meaning ‘ice’ and describing the candy coating of this treat

16 strawberries
250 g (1 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
125 g (1/2 cup) water
red food colouring, optional

wash strawberries and dry them completely. moisture will prevent the sugar coating from fully adhering. once dried, skewer strawberries on bamboo or lollipop sticks

line a large plate or baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside

in a small pot over medium heat, combine sugar and water. allow the sugar to melt without stirring the mixture

as the syrup boils and it starts to turn a very light golden colour (it should read 150c on a candy thermometer, about 8 – 10 min over medium heat), turn off the heat. if you are not using a candy thermometer, please use the ‘cold water test.’ when you drizzle some of the hot sugar into a bowl of cold water, the sugar should harden into sugar ribbons that you can break with a ‘snap.’ if the sugar in the cold water is still flexible or does not create the ‘snap,’ the sugar is not ready yet

stir in a few drops of red food colouring now if using

tilt the pot slightly, so more syrup pools on one side of the pot. dip a strawberry into the syrup and turn the stick gently to cover the strawberry completely. allow excess syrup to drip off and place sugared strawberry on the baking sheet

allow the sugar coating to harden completely before removing from the baking sheet, about 10 min. serve immediately

#tanghulu #strawberries #bakefromscratch #thebakefeed #bombesquad
lunar new year is my favourite time of year to vis lunar new year is my favourite time of year to visit chinatown because of all the festive decor and treats. whenever i visit chinatown, i never leave empty-handed (or with an empty stomach) because there are so many chinese bakeries to choose from

if you aren’t too familiar with chinese bakeries, especially the ones in vancouver’s chinatown, i have a short and sweet guide on the blog to help you savour and enjoy all the treats chinatown has to offer. i ate many coconut cream buns and egg tarts in one day for *scientific purposes* and i cant think of a better way to spend a weekend

📍 treats from all the bakeries below
📍 sun fresh bakery (245 keefer st)
📍 new town bakery & restaurant (148 e pender st.)
📍 zhao mah bakery (280 e pender st.)
📍 maxim’s bakery & restaurant (256 keefer st.)
📍 the boss bakery (532 main st.)

#chinesebakeries #bakefromscratch #yvreats #vancouverfood
Ginger milk custard (薑汁撞奶) is a classic ca Ginger milk custard (薑汁撞奶) is a classic cantonese style dessert and I grew up eating this dessert after large family dinners at chinese restaurants. The literal meaning of its chinese name is “ginger juice bumping into milk,” which describes the entire process of making the custard. The silky dessert only requires 3 ingredients: milk, ginger, and sugar. Because the ingredient list is so short, you can really taste each component. For my ginger milk custard, I’m using Dairyland Microfiltered Milk, which is a 100% canadian milk. (PS. Microfiltered Milk stays fresher longer than regular milk!)

Here is how you make it:
1 tbsp fresh ginger juice (from ~30g grated ginger) 200 ml dairyland microfiltered milk
2 tsp granulated sugar

Using the back of a spoon, peel ginger root. Then grate the ginger using a microplane or grater.
Extract the juice from the grated ginger by pressing it against a fine-mesh sieve. Transferthe juice to a bowl.

In a small pot over medium, heat up milk to 70c. It is important that the milk reaches 70c because this will cause the milk and ginger juice to congeal to form the pudding. Add sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

When the milk is warm enough, pour the milk into the bowl with ginger juice. Do not stir it and let it set for at least 15 min.

Put a small spoon on top of the pudding — if the spoon is able to rest on top of the pudding, the ginger milk curd is successful and ready to be enjoyed.

#startwithfresh @ingredients_by_saputo #chinesecooking #dessertrecipe #chinesedessert #homecafe
☁️ fluffy mango pancakes ☁️ (full recipe i ☁️ fluffy mango pancakes ☁️
(full recipe is on the blog)

#bakefromscratch #mangopancake #pancake #thebakefeed

Footer

Recipe Index
About
Press
Contact
Legal

sneak peeks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

© 2023 Constellation Inspiration · Site by Meyne