Apam Ice Cream

As long as I can remember, I've liked this version of the apam family. The one that is not so airy, is colourful and is made with ice cream soda (as my Mak would tell us) hence the name with which we referred it to. My mak used to make it, and sometimes one of her "mak angkat"s would make it for us too. (One, whom we called Tok, was from Johor and was a great cook. I still remember her "roti kukus pintal colour colour")

For the past 3 or 4 years, my sis-in-law (SIL) and I would drive to the pasar ramadhan in USJ to look for the stall that sells this apam. They only sell it during ramadhan and it was one of the nicest versions we've had. (I know of a stall in Kelana Jaya that sells it all year round but their version is too sweet for me) We'd walk up and down all the stalls looking for this particular stall and once found, the excitement is quite something else! We'd usually walk away with a few bags of 10 pieces, to be sent to the other siblings' homes yang also suka tapi tak rajin nak gi cari. Once a year we'll satisfy our apam ice cream craving.

But this year is a different story. Thanks to a good friend, Z, I got a recipe that works! And after some trials and error (I'll explain this in a while) the result is now one that I'm happy with. I made this batch for buka puasa on the first day of ramadhan, and since we had our iftar at my parents home, all the siblings and mak and ayah pun dapat merasa sama without having to send to the individual houses. The verdict : nicer that the bought ones! Yay!

Here's the recipe if ever any of my precious 4 want to try it (and to anyone else that stumbles upon this blog)

3 cups of plain flour
1 cup of caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon of Quick 75 (you can get this at the baking section of most supermarkets)
1 teaspoon of rose essence
1 cup ice cream soda
colouring (I use green and red)

Put the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl ready to mix. Then last of all put in the ice cream soda. This is important. If you put in the ice cream soda in between the other ingredients, for some reason the batter with be like putty ie. likat sampai tak boleh nak pukul. I killed my food processor doing this as the motor overheated from trying to beat the stuff. So remember to put the ice cream soda last then beat (in my case, with a hand mixer since old trusty processor is still dead) until it forms a smooth paste. Divide the batter into three and colour two of the bowls. (I like my apam pastel in colour so I don't put too much of the colouring) Then fill in your cups (I used small cupcake cups) up to 2/3 full with the three colours and place them in the steamer. (I put my cups in the tray first so that it'll keep the shape). Steam for 10 minutes and wallah! you get apam ice cream!

It's easy to make. This batch gave me 60 small apams, so the neighbours got some, my mom in law got some and the rest was finished off by my family. I think my mak alone ate 5!

That made me really happy!