Recipe Description
Layered agar-agar traditionally alternates white santan layers with brown palm sugar agar-agar. However, these days they can be quite spectacular sights to behold, especially when the layers colourful alternate with the white santan.
These desserts can be quite tricky to master because of the need to properly gauge the time needed to set each layer. Pour in too early, and the lower layer may merge with the new layer because it was not set enough. Pour too late, and the new layer could not grip on a surface that had set too stiff.
Although you can use the refrigerator and take the pan in and out throughout the process, one of the ways to keep an eye on the jelly is to orchestrate an ice bath/hot bath setup. It sounds quite complicated but is actually quite simple to accomplish, and it ensures that you can keep the cold and hot elements separate.
If you have a rectangular serving pan that can fit two large bowls, then you just need to place that on the stove to heat some water to a bare simmer. Otherwise, just use two separate pots like a double boiler. The ice bath is simply iced water in any tray that can fit your baking pan.
This recipe makes an agar-agar with exactly 12 layers, alternating between colour and white, which makes it ideal for a Merdeka-themed dessert. As usual, I’ve opted for natural colours so I’m using butterfly pea flower for blue, mango for yellow and pomegranate for red. Unfortunately, the red was a bit pale so I should’ve stuck to dragon fruit like I did for the badak berendam a few weeks ago.
I use two measuring cups so that the coconut jelly does not mix with the clear jelly. I would measure exactly 200ml for each layer before stirring in the coloured fruit or tea. I would advise no more than 3 tablespoons so that you do not dilute the jelly too much.
At the start of the process, the baking pan will tend to float so be careful about swirling the pan too much, or the jelly will ride up along the sides of the pan and set unevenly. After a few pours the greater volume of jelly will help weigh down the pan and help stabilise its level. After pouring the final layer, the whole pan of jelly can be refrigerated and allowed to set for at least 2 hours.
When turning out of the pan, slide a knife along the sides to release the jelly from the mould. Turn the pan over onto a cutting board and wipe the bottom of the pan with a hot towel. When you hear the jelly drop onto the cutting board, remove the pan and trim off the edges to reveal the clean layers of the agar-agar.
Recipe Ingredient
- Clear Jelly:
- 10g agar-agar powder
- 1200ml cold water
- 200g granulated sugar
- 5 pandan leaves, knotted
- Coconut Jelly:
- 10g agar-agar powder
- 400ml coconut milk
- 800ml cold water
- 200g granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 5 pandan leaves, knotted
- Colour Layers:
- 150g pomegranate or dragon fruit, blended into a puree
- 150g mango, blended into a pulp
- 10g butterfly pea flower, steeped with 1 cup hot water
Instructions
- Prepare all the colour components and place them into individual cups. Prepare a hot bath with water in a deep rectangular metal pan that can fit two large bowls, heated over the stove to a bare simmer. Prepare an ice bath with iced water in a deep rectangular pan that can fit a 22cm by 22cm square baking pan.
- For the clear jelly, place water, sugar, agar-agar powder and pandan leaves into a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 1 minute until the pandan fragrance emerges. Turn off the heat and discard pandan leaves, then strain into a bowl. Place the bowl into the hot bath to keep the clear jelly warm while preparing the coconut jelly.
- For the coconut jelly, place coconut milk, water, pandan leaves, salt, sugar and agar-agar powder into a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 1 minute until the pandan fragrance emerges. Turn off the heat and discard pandan leaves, then strain into a bowl. Place the bowl into the hot bath to keep both mixtures warm.
- To assemble the 12 layers of jelly, start with coconut, then red, coconut, red, coconut, red, coconut, blue, coconut, yellow, coconut, and finally blue.
- Measure 200 ml of coconut jelly and pour it into the baking pan. Leave it to set slightly in the ice bath but not harden. Test the surface with your finger to lightly feel that it is still a little sticky to touch.
- For the second layer, measure 200ml of clear jelly and add 2-3 tablespoons of colourant until it reaches the desired tone, stirring to evenly disperse the colouring. Gently pour the coloured mixture over the coconut layer. Allow to set slightly in the ice bath but not harden.
- Repeat the alternating layers until all 12 layers are completed, ending with a blue layer.
- Refrigerate the whole jelly for at least 2 hours to completely set.
- Turn it out of the pan, cut into cubes and serve.