Hainanese-style Kaya and Kaya Toast
I think kaya toast might be the Hainanese community’s greatest contribution to the cuisine of the Malay peninsula. They took the traditional coconut jams found around Asia and boosted its flavour with dark caramel, combining it with toast and hand-roasted coffee for the original Hainanese café experience now found all over Singapore and Malaysia.
Ingredients
10 eggs
600-750g caster sugar plus 50g extra for making caramel (I prefer to use 750g, but the recipe will work with as low as 600g)
5 pandan leaves, tied in a knot
400g coconut cream
¼ tsp salt
20g butter, plus thick slices of butter to serve
white or wholemeal bread, to serve
Method
For the kaya, combine the eggs and sugar in a tall, slender pot and with a whisk, slowly stir in one direction for about 20 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Don’t lift the whisk out of the kaya as that will create air bubbles.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a simmer and place a tea towel at the bottom of the pot. Place the tall pot into the water and stir for 5 minutes to ensure the mixture is fully dissolved. Add the pandan leaves and coconut cream and stir frequently for about 30 minutes to 1 hour (or more) until thickened. The time it takes to thicken will depend on your heat, and also the amount of liquid from the coconut cream (see note) but it is important to make sure the kaya is thick before adding the caramel.
Heat the remaining sugar in a small pot until a dark caramel forms. Stir through the butter and add to the kaya. Stir for a few more minutes until well-combined.
For the kaya toast grill the bread until well-toasted. Cut off the crusts and cover with thick slices of butter. Spread over lots of kaya, cut in half, and serve, preferably with thick Hainanese coffee. For wafer-style kaya toast, grill the bread on both sides then slice each slice in half horizontally and fill with slices of butter and a generous spread of kaya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8mpepg1lKM
Notes
- If using a canned coconut cream, don’t shake the can before use. Open the top carefully and scoop out just the thick coconut cream from the top, leaving the watery liquid in the can. The volume will be less than 400ml, but you don’t need to top it up as the liquid will just need to be cooked off in the cooking process anyway. Using just the thick portion of the coconut cream will reduce the cooking time.
- I like to use a cheese slicer to get even slices of butter.
How long does this jam last?
If you keep it in the fridge it should last for a few months at least.
Hi Adam. I am from Malaysia. Tried cooking the Hainanese Kaya this afternoon. A great success in terms of colour and texture. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Hi Elsie, may I know how much kaya did this recipe yield?
Hi Adam,
I made the kaya this morning but mine is watery, sigh, how to rescue it? Thanks.
Hi Adam, I just made the kaya but it turned out watery, sigh, how could I rescue it?
Thanks.
If your kaya is watery you just need to cook it for longer. Different brands of coconut cream can vary with how much water they contain. A good high-cream brand might only need to be cooked for 45 minutes, but I have used some more watery brands that I need to cook for double that to get to a good, thick consistency.
My preference is that you use the Ayam Brand Coconut cream. It is from Malaysia and it is specially designed for the making of kaya. You can find these in Asian grocery stores, some good supermarket, and at Costco.
Hi Adam,
The caramel became hardened when I poured into the egg mixture and took quite a while to melt and well combined. But my caramel Colour is lighter in Colour than the one in your video.
Also, the end result turned out to be sticky and gluey, which made it difficult to spread onto bread when chilled. Please advise. Thanks!
Hi Adam,
The caramel hardened when I poured into the egg mixture and took a while to melt and combined well. I used the caramel immediately and my caramel colour was lighter than yours.
Also, my end result was sticky and gluey when chilled, thus, making it hard to spread onto the bread.
Please advise. Thanks alot!
Hi Adam,
I made the kaya and it was absolutely delicious.Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Adam, I need help! I live in the UK but they only have creamed coconut (in a solid block) and coconut milk. I can’t find coconut cream anywhere. Is there any substitute I can use? or can I use the solid creamed coconut?
Thank you!
Sorry but I have no idea what solid creamed coconut is. It’s not a product I’ve seen or used before.
Rina, looks like Tesco’s and Waitrose for instance sell coconut cream (I’m in Australia but looking online). Make sure it’s in a can, not a block. Good luck!
Hi Adam, I have made this several times and always end up curdling the mixture ie it ends up looing like scrambled eggs with a watery run off. Do you keep the heat extremely low? It always starts well – smooth and slowly thickening then at some point it suddenly turns and curdles.
Hi Adam, what heat are you cooking it on? My kaya always curdles! I have tried medium low heat and high heat (Mrs Leong’s recomendation in her cookbook). I’ve constantly stirred and not constantly stirred. Whichever way I cook it, it tends to scramble after 15-20 mins. I couldn’t imagine cooking this for up to an hour!
Are you cooking this in a water bath? There’s no way it could curdle in a water bath after 15 minutes.
How to save it if it curdle ?
Adam, what’s the temperature of your water bath? Can I bring it to boil or not at all?
I heat it over medium heat without boiling it. It will be unlikely to boil anyway as the pot of kaya will keep the temperature below boiling.
Hi Adam, may I use organic turbinado or cane sugar instead of caster sugar? What is the minimum amount of sugar so that it can still remain as a smooth Kaya texture?
And do we need to add salt as indicated in your receipe but not in the video?
Thanks for the receipe, my family enjoys the Kaya very much.
You will need at least 600g of sugar to make the kaya smooth without it scrambling. You don’t need to add salt, but it will make it taste better.
Adam, I’ve just tried making your kaya. ABSOLUTELY SENSATIONAL!! Thank you so much! Can’t wait to do another batch!
Adam, thanks for sharing this recipe. Good texture & colour. Going to try with duck eggs the next round, heard they are good for making kaya.
Thank you so much Adam the Hainanese Kaya taste marvellously good
Hi Adam, Patrick here from Malaysia. I have made Kaya jam with the following recipe.
1000gm coconut milk
250g brown sugar
250g caster sugar
6 pandan leaves
16 eggs
Is the above recipe is perfect and the proportion of each ingredients are correct?
Hi Adam your kaya is the best kaya ever ! now all my family is hooked on this wonderful kaya and they all learn how to make your kaya .
Thank you very much for sharing your recipe,really appreciate.
Have one request by any chance you have the recipe of famous Hainanes Rice Candy ( rice crispy) with peanut and ginger taste.
Bonnie Rosencrans
Like to see your recipe for the Hananese Bread. Thanks
Hi, can this recipe be cut in half? Do i just halve the amounts of the ingredients? Thanks in advance.
Hi Adam,
Just finished making the jam based on the recipe. Only had 5 eggs so divided everything by half. Turned out perfect! Thank you for the great recipe.
It worked! I’ve tried a few different Kaya recipes but this is the only one that works and tastes just the way I remember it. Thank you.
I have attempted many different recipes and they were absolutely tragic events. If those trials were an animal, I would euthanise them however I decided to bite the bullet and try yours even though it was going to take much longer.
It Worked!!! (Picture me running around my kitchen with my arms in the air).
The key thing is the double boiler and Adam’s practical explanation as to why the method is done that way.
I am impressed!!
I have now realised are there are many fraudulent recipe influensers out there pushing for likes and clicks (while getting paid for them), their recipes appears really good but they do NOT work in real life. There is nothing but camera trickery with them for them to profit.
Thank You very much.
Hi Adam,
For the temperature is it 80 F or 80 C?
Thank you
Hi Adam. I am from Malaysia. Tried cooking the Hainanese Kaya this afternoon. A great success in terms of colour and texture. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Hi Adam, thank you for sharing the recipe. I tried making it. Tastes perfect, however, the texture is kind of sticky caramel-like. Any idea why? Is it because the texture was already too thick when I added the caramel butter? Thank you for your advise! 🙂
Hi Adam,
I’m from Malaysia and my Italian husband loves the kaya.
Question, can I make the caramel with gula melaka instead of caster sugar? If so, would I need to add butter as well and keep the same proportions?
Thanks for the recipe !
Hi Adam,
If I replace the slender pot with a borosilicate jar, would it still do the magic?
Hi Adam, have ever come across the kaya turns sugary after 2 days? What can i do if it becomes sugary? Any reason why it become like that?
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Hi Adam, can I use duck eggs instead of chicken eggs for your Kaya recipe?