Kuih Kapit @ Coconut Love Letters

Duck motif

When I was a kid, I didn't know how to pronounce this properly... Koi Kapek, Koi Kapiat or even Gugapek, hahahahaha!

Each year, I will look forward to the precious two cans my maternal aunts will pass to us when we visit them on Chinese New Year day 1. And when I was 9 (I think), my siblings and I pestered my mom to make our own. Two cans each year just wasn't enough!

My mom finally gave into our request as I'm already 9, and the youngest, and will be able to help out, it will be fine! She bought a large charcoal kuih kapit grill and 10 moulds. I was sooooo excited when the grill and moulds were delivered to our doorstep.

The startup wasn't easy as my mom has never made any herself. LOL. The first 30 minutes was difficult. Only my cousin has made this before and she was incharge of 3 moulds. My mom tried out 3 too. We burnt them or were too slow to remove from the mould, and got hardened, and stuck onto the mould. LOL. And the moulds were new, not seasoned. It's a challenge for inexperienced people to use unseasoned moulds. The initial batter was not at the right consistency. But my mom being my mom, adjusted the batter until it was just fine! What was I doing?? I was in charge of keeping the cooled 'letters' into the cans while my brother folded the 'letters'. After 30 minutes, everything was smooth and almost each piece was looking good. Then my mom daringly use up all 10 moulds. One long afternoon's of hardwork gave us 7 Milo cans of kuih kapit! And it was never enough, as always.

Each year then on, we would always have two Sundays making kuih kapit for Chinese New Year. My mom made enough to give my paternal aunts and my 4th uncle would finish one can in just 2-3 days, we made enough to make everybody happy. I became the mould handler the next few years, and it was not difficult, provided, we were not afraid of the heat.

It was very much anticipated (for me) each year, until I was 17 and everything stopped, and never picked up again. The grill was left to gather dust and the moulds kept away until I used them this time. It's been more than 20 years....... that long.

Butterfly motif

This crispy crispy treat is a very thin waffle. There are two types in Malaysia, one that is made with wheat flour and doesn't come with embossment. The other type is made with rice flour and comes with embossed patterns. My mom never liked the rice flour version as it is very fragile and the wheat flour version's moulds were too heavy. (We have both moulds), so we just made a wheat flour batter and cooked it in an embossed mould which is much lighter and easier to handle. The result was an easily to handle cookie with an easy to handle mould. LOL. Rice flour versions hardens much faster compared to wheat flour versions, and wheat flour versions have more to chew, not as flimsy, not as fragile. My mom prefers to use self raising flour and it's fine to use just regular cake flour.

I asked my mom for the moulds and she asked me how am I going to make it? Now, I can't use a charcoal grill at home, doing everything by myself. So, I used the gas stove. LOL.
My mom calls me nuts. Hahaha, yeah, I'm nuts.

These are sold for RM30 a can when I can make them for RM3.. talk about 900% savings. LOL. Time used: Less than 2 hours.

I added a burner mesh to tone down the flame's height. I bought the mesh from Mr. DIY.

Kuih Kapit @ Coconut Love Letters

by WendyinKK
Makes around 1 Milo Tin

100g cake / superfine flour
150g sugar
100g coconut milk + pinch of salt
100g water
150g eggs (3 grade B/C)

Prepare batter.
1. Beat eggs with sugar until it looks very very foamy, no need ribbon stage
2. Mix flour with water and coconut milk, until a smooth batter forms.
3. Combine both and mix until smooth.

Cooking (single person working instructions :)
4. Heat mould on medium low heat until hot. Brush a thin layer of oil over the inner surface, both sides and let it heat up for a while again.*
5. Pour batter onto the mould, it should frizzle and close the mould right away**. Cook it over gentle heat, turning from time to time.
6. Use a butter knife and scrape off the excess batter.
7. When the love letter is nice and golden, peel it off, and quickly place the mould back onto the fire***.
8. Immediately roll or fold it into shape. Hold the shape until it is totally cooled down. (Roll -chopsticks in place, Fold - use dinner knife to hold down the edges but keep the other end a bit puffy)
9. Repeat the pouring, cooking, scraping, peeling and folding process until all the batter is used up.
10. Keep the cooled love letters into AIR TIGHT containers immediately. Milo or Milk tins or good plastic containers will work well.

*Oiling only needs to be done for the first two pieces and these are usually not nicely made until the perfect heat setting for your stove is found for cooking these treats. No further oiling needs to be done.
** Batter will overflow onto the mould and it's ok. No frizzle and that means the mould is not hot enough.
***Since gas stoves do not provide an even heating like the charcoal grill, results are best when batter is poured onto a reheated mould, and not immediately after peeling.

Amount from this recipe.