外公的秘方黑芝麻花生馅年糕

过年了，吃年糕，发红包，都是为了讨一个彩头。红红火火，一年更比一年高的意思。

记得刚到美国来的时候，整天忙活着对付学分，为了找份工作拼死拼活，那来闲情逸致去享受生活和中国的传统习俗。到头来，美国人的节日，我们觉得跟咱们不沾边。中国人自己节日又好象没有太多心情去打理。到最后，成了不过节的孤家寡人。

后来，生活稳定了，有了自己的小窝，再加上遇到CHRIS，开始过些中西结合的日子。今年，突然来了心情，要把咱们老主宗的传统拣回来。那就从黑芝麻花生酱年糕开始吧.

这款年糕，香甜软糯，非常好吃。有一丝淡淡的牛奶搀杂着椰子的香味，用外公的秘方做的黑芝麻花生馅又锦上添花。我一边切年糕块，一边忍不住吃了两三块。拿到舅妈家，大受欢迎。连舅舅都说比外面买的好吃。

Chinese are notorious for being superstitious. I guess it’s OK of being a bit this way, especially sometimes, it provides us excuses to enjoy our favorite food. It’s the Chinese tradition to have the rice cake for the Chinese New Year dinner. The rice cake symbolizes the wish that the next year will be more prosperous than this year.

Ingredients for the Flour Mix
1) 1 bag of Sweet rice flour （454g
2) 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/2 sugar; 1/2 splenda)
3) 1/4 cup threaded coconut
4) 1 tsp baking powder
5) 1 tsp salt

Tip: Many recipes call for condensed milk. I replaced it with threaded coconut. This way, the rice cake still has the nice coconut flavor but the fat and calorie is much reduced.

Ingredients for the Batter
1) 3 large egg
2) 1/4 cup veggie oil
3) 2 1/2 cups skim milk

Assembly
1) Mix all the ingredients for the flour together
2) Beat the ingredients for the batter together
3) Spray the baking pan with some cooking oil
4) Add 1) into the batter
5) Pour 1/2 of the batter into a 9 inch baking pan
6) Put a think layer of black sesame mix or red bean mix on top
7) Cover with another 1/2 of the batter

Tip: I made my own black sesame mix. The red bean mix is available in any Asian market.

Bake
1) Preheat the oven at 350F
2) Bake covered for about 60 min (double check just like how you check for cake)
3) Turn to boil. For 2 min till the top is browned
4) It's done when you stick a toothpick into and are able to take it out with nothing on it

Tip: You want to spray some oil on the foil before covering the baking pan with it.

Cool Down the Rice Cake
1) Cool down uncovered for about 15min
2) Cool down it for another 60 min covered; This will keep cake moist.

Tip:The cake tastes great if you microwave it the next day for just 10 seconds.

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TheCoconutHead