Kuih Kapit Recipe

The Penang Nyonya Kuih Kapit (12 February 2013)


The kuih kapit, also written kuih kapek, and often referred as the Chinese love letters, is perhaps the most popular of Chinese New Year cookies in Penang. It is also called kuih sepit in Malay.

The cookie is form on specialised mould known as the kuih kapit mould which comprises two round iron plates held together by thongs. The plates bear designs that are transferred to the cookies. Kuih kapit gets its name from how the cookie is formed when compressed in the kuih kapit mould (kapit is a verb in Malay meaning "to compress").

Ingredients

Tools

Kuih Kapit (24 January 2009)

Kuih Kapit Recipe

Mix all the above ingredients in a mixing bowl, and whick it until the sugar is dissolved. Then set it aside for over an hour. Lit the charcoal in the grill to a moderate fire. Grease a layer of cooking oil on each side of the kuih kapit moulds. Then place it over the charcoal fire for a while to heat it up. This will ensure your kuih kapit is evenly cooked.

Now comes the time to make the cookie. Pour a ladle of the kuih kapit batter onto the mould, and clamp it shut and place over the charcoal fire. There is usually a lock at the handle-end of the thong to ensure the plates do not open prematurely. Time the firing for about half a minute, then turn the it over to fire the other side.

It takes some practise to determine when your cookie is done. Based on your own estimation, remove the thong from the fire, trim off the edges (which are absolutely delicious eaten then and there) with a knife, and then open the mould and quickly remove the cookie batter. The batter is fast hardening, so you need to immediately fold it up, into half and again, into a quarter. Flatten the quater using something flat, i.e. a plate or a tin cover, then quickly store it in an air-tight container.

Making kuih-kapit is a time-consuming endeavor that is carried out by Chinese womenfolk in Penang a few weeks before the Chinese New Year celebration. Usually the ladies come together to communally make several tins of kuih kapit, and the whole operation make take a whole day lasting into the wee hours of the night or even the following morning.

List of Penang Nyonya Kuih

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