This is the Thai version of muffins, they are made with rice flour, scented very gently with rose or other flower water and steamed rather than baked. To cook this you will need foil or paper cups, the dough mixture is runny and needs to be held in a cup during cooking. You can see from the pink muffin sliced in half in the picture above, that the mixture forms light moist muffins.

Ingredients for 4 Muffins
125 gms Rice Flour
125 gms Sugar
125 ml Rose Water
1 Teaspoon Fresh Yeast
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
Food Colouring (Optional)

Preparation
1. Mix the yeast with the rice flour, add the rose water little by little and mix until the flour is soft.
2. Add sugar, and the remaining rose water and the baking soda.
3. At this point you can add 5 drops of food colouring. Or even divide the mixture into sections and colour each section separately.
4. Stir the mixture well and place in a covered bowl, leave for 1-2 hours for bubbles to form.
5. The mixture should be thick but still fluid. Fill each paper or foil cup to just below the top, the mixture will expand during cooking.
6. Place in a Chinese steamer for 10 minutes. You can check they are cooked by sticking a tooth pick or fork into the centre and if it comes out clean it is cooked inside.
7. Serve cold.

A slightly salty, slightly sweet sweet. Again this is typical Thai, you won't understand why you like it, but you will, it's the salt. The worms are made of steamed rice flour, the dominant flavour is salty-sweet toasted sesame seeds with the coconut and floral scents as a back note.

Ingredients
50 gms Rice Flour
50 gms Cassava Starch
250 ml Rose Water
1 Teaspoon Sesame Seeds
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Sugar
30 ml Coconut Milk
30 gms Dessicated (Shredded) Coconut
Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Mix the 2 flours together, add the water and coconut milk into the pan.
2. Cook on a medium heat, you need to keep stirring the mixture as it cooks so it becomes smooth. It will only take a few minutes to thicken and become clear. Don't let it burn. Once its cooked, leave it to cool.
3. Once cool, pull off pieces of this dough and roll it in your hand into worm shapes. For extra patterning, add a drop of food colouring and twist them to make a spiral worm.
4. Steaming in a chinese steamer for 3 minutes, then leave to cool.
5. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry hot frying pan for 30 seconds, be careful they will brown very quickly.
6. Mix the salt, sugar and seeds together.
7. Roll the worms in the mixture.
8. Dust them with dessicated coconut to finish.

The third of todays sweet ball recipes. These tapioca balls are fill with chopped water chestnuts. The tapioca has a sticky, jelly-like texture and the chestnuts add a crunch that contrasts it nicely. If you can't find rose water, you can use vanilla essence in water, for a slightly different taste.

Ingredients
200 gms Tapioca Pearls
40 gms Water Chestnuts
500 ml Rose Water
100 gms Sugar
100 ml Coconut Milk
150 ml Hot water

Preparation
1. Put the tapioca pearls in a bowl and add the hot water. You should just add enough hot water to make the tapioca clump together. Take a spoon and turn the tapioca over to make sure the water is well distributed.
2. Chop the chestnuts into quarters.
3. Take a lump of the tapioca, and flatten it in the palm of your hand. Make a disc about 5cms across.
4. Place a piece of chestnut in the middle and fold the edges up to wrap up the chestnut piece. Smooth it out to form a ball.
5. Boil the rose water with the sugar, once it is boiling add the tapioca balls and simmer for 25 minutes.
6. Serve warm with a spoonful or two of coconut milk over the top.

The 'squeeze' name comes from how it's made. It's a sticky rice flour pancake, stuffed with yellow soya. We steam it, press it flat, then cut it open and fold it back on itself so that the yellow bean stuffing is on the outside. Finally we coat it in sugar, coconut and toasted sesame seeds. Below you can see a photograph from before I folded up the edges and sealed the beans inside.

Ingredients
500 gms Green Soya Beans (Or yellow if you can get it)
100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
20 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
2 Tablespoons Toasted Sesame Seeds
50 gms Sugar
50 gms Shredded Coconut
1 Teaspoon Salt
Water for boiling
Cool Water

Preparation
1. Soak the green soya beans in water for 1 night and then remove the green skin. This is explained here.
2. Steam the beans for 45 minutes.
3. Mix the sticky rice flour, rice flour and cassava starch together. Add water, just a little to bind the flours together into a thick paste.
4. Boil a pan of water. Take a ball of the flour paste, flatten it in your hand to form a disc. Spoon the cooked yellow soya beans into the middle and fold up the edges, you can see this in the photograph just above. At this point you should have a ball of flour paste with yellow beans inside. Flatten it in your hands, so that its a flattened sausage shape.
5. Drop them into the boiling water, they will swell up after 3-5 minutes and then they are cooked. Remove and drop into a bowl of cool water.
6. Mix the sugar, salt, sesame seed and grated coconut together.
7. Cut the squeeze cake down it's edge and fold it inside out so that the yellow beans stick outwards.
8. Dip in the sugar mix so that it's coated all over.
9. Serve cold.

These little pyramid shaped sweets are made inside folded banana leaves. This is one of those occasions when I really would stick to banana leaves. The sweets are sticky, oiled banana leaves are quite easy to peel off, but tin foil or greaseproof paper is not so easy. You can buy banana leaves in Asian grocers, look in the freezer cabinet. This is the sort of food we take to a temple to eat.

Ingredients
100 gms Green Soya Bean (Or Yellow)
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoon Sugar
3 Tablespoons Oil
200 gms Sticky Rice Flour
100 gms Palm Sugar
200 gms Water
Banana Leaves

Preparation
1. Soak the soya beans overnight in the warm water.
2. Remove the green skins to get yellow soya.
3. Steam for 45 minutes and pound with the salt and sugar.
4. Place them in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir to drive off excess water and make the beans thicken.
5. Put the palm sugar into the saucepan, add the water and boil until dissolved then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
6. Put the sugar water into the flour, add oil and mix until the flour is a smooth dough/paste and leave for 2-3 hours.
7. Take pieces of the soya and roll into a ball about 3cms across.
8. Take pieces of the dough and flatten in the palm of your hand to 9cms across. Place the soya ball in the middle, fold up the edges around the soya.
9. Cut a banana leaf into a square about 15cms on the side. I form the leaf into a cone, put the sweet into the centre and fold the edges over to seal the top. The result is a pyramid shape.
10. Steam for 10 minutes.

This dessert is steamed, with a salty coconut topping and sweet body made from rice flour and brown sugar. In the photograph I decorated it with some toasted sesame seeds, but that was just to make the photograph more interesting!

Ingredients The Base
50 gms Rice Flour
100 gms Sugar
70 ml Coconut Milk
100 ml Water

Ingredients The Top
100 ml Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Sesame Seeds

Preparation
1. For the base: Mix the rice flour with all ingredients and stir until mixed.
2. Preheat the bowls you will be making the dessert in by steaming them.
3. Put the base mix into the bowls and steam for 15 minutes to cook.
4. For the topping: Mix Rice flour, coconut milk and salt together.
5. Spoon the topping over the base and steam for 10 more minutes.
6. When serving garnish with sesame seeds.

Black sesame seeds have a crunchyness and together with the coconut these balls are one of my favorites. There are so many different candies like this, ones with peanuts, ones with sugar, if you don't like these explore the dessert section for more choices.

Ingredients
50 gms Sesame Seed ( Toasted )
100 gms Coconut Powder
300 gms Sugar
100 ml Water
100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
30 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch Flour

Preparation
1. Blend the sesame seeds, sugar, and 100 ml water together until the sesame forms a smooth paste.
2. Heat slowly over the stove until the water is reduced and the paste thickens, you will need a firm paste for this, so keep stirring and heating until its as thick as you can make it.
3. Take pieces of the paste and roll them in the palm of your hands into 2cms diameter balls.
4. Make the dough by mixing all the flours together add a little water and stir until it forms a stiff dough.
5. Pinch off pieces of the dough, flatten them in your hands, place a ball of sesame inside and wrap up the ball.
6. To cool, drop into boiling water for 3 minutes.
7. Serve in a ginger drink, warm tea or coffee are also nice.

These parcels are a delicious and slightly sweet combination of sticky rice and bananas. If you can, use red bananas, a sweeter type of banana that makes an interesting contrast colour, although you can use yellow bananas as I've done for this photograph. For presentation it is better to wrap these in banana leaves, but you can also use tinfoil.

Ingredients
500 gms Sticky Rice
150 gms Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
100 ml Coconut Milk
4-6 Bananas
1 Tableapoon Oil
Banana Leaves (Or Tin Foil)
String To Tie

Preparation
1. Soak the sticky rice overnight.
2. Drain the rice, place into a saucepan, add the sugar, salt, coconut milk and oil.
3. Heat the rice, stirring all the time over a medium heat. It will become thick after about 5 minutes of heating.
4. Cut banana leaves into 18x25cm rectangles. For each parcel you will use 2 rectangles, for this recipe you will need approximately 10 rectangles (5 parcels).
5. Peel and slice the bananas into halves lengthwise.
6. Lay out two of the leaves (a double layer), spoon the rice into the centre of the leaves, place a banana in the middle, then spoon on some more rice.
7. Fold up leaves to form a parcel, then tie them with string.
8. Steam the parcels for 45 minutes.

A sweet peanut sauce ball. It's common in Thailand and China to get these sweet balls with all sorts of fillings, this version has hand made peanut butter filling.

Ingredients
100 gms Salted Peanuts
100 ml Water
150 gms Sugar
1 Tablespoon Oil
100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
30 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch Flour

Preparation
1. In a blender, mix the peanuts, sugar and water and blend to a peanut paste.
2. Heat slowly in a saucepan and reduce the water, boil off the water until you end up with a thick paste of peanuts.
3. Spoon small balls of the peanut out (approximately 2cms diameter). If the peanut does not hold its shape, you need to continue reducing mixture over the heat to make it thicker.
4. Make the dough by mixing the 4 flours together with a little water to just form a stiff paste dough.
5. Pinch off pieces of dough, roll them into a ball (approx 30gms of dough each ball).
6. Flatten each ball of dough in your hand, place a peanut ball in the middle and fold up the edges of the dough.
7. You can freeze them at this point and they can be kept for a long time.
8. To cook, drop into boiling water for 3 minutes.
9. To serve you can drop the balls into a sauce of sweet ginger tea, coffee or sweet tea.

We like to steam things in Thailand rather than bake them. Steaming is easier and it's common not to have an oven in Thailand. This is a steamed jam sponge with a rich coconut custard, made from coconut cream and vanilla.

Ingredients
100 gms Cake Flour
150 gms Butter
170 gms Sugar
2-4 Tablespoons Jam (Your favourite)
2 Eggs

Ingredients for Custard
100 ml Coconut Cream (The rich top layer of coconut milk)
250 ml Milk
10 gms Corn Flour
3-4 Drops Vanilla Essence
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Preparation
1. Cream the butter in a large bowl with the sugar until it's smooth.
2. Mix in the eggs, and flour and whisk for 1-2 minutes with an electric whisk.
3. Choose a bowl that fits in your steamer.
4. Spoon the jam into the bottom of a bowl, then spoon the cake mixture onto the top.
5. Cover the top of the bowl in tin foil to prevent water getting in and steam for 1 hour. You can check that the cake is cooked by sticking in a toothpick, if the toothpick comes out clean of cake mixture them it is cooked.
6. To make the custard, heat the coconut milk, sugar, milk, corn flour and vanilla essense in a saucepan. Stir continuously, until the custard thickens, then serve.

Traditionally these steamed sweets are made in banana leaves, but greaseproof paper works just as well. In the photograph, you can see I've cut one open so you can see inside. They have 3 layers, at the centre is a sweet ground coconut, then a layer of sticky rice flour dough, and an outside coating of salty rice dough with coconut milk.

Ingredients for Coconut Sugar Filling
100 gms Ground Coconut
200 gms Palm Sugar (Or Brown Sugar)
70 ml Water

Ingredients for Middle Layer
200 gms Sticky Rice Flour
50 ml Warm Water

Ingredients for Outside
100 gms Rice Flour
200 gms Coconut Milk
4 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Greaseproof paper, or Banana Leaves to Wrap

Preparation
1. Make the filling by mixing the water and sugar in a saucepan.
2. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then add the ground coconut and boil until it forms a thick sticky sauce.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool a little, then take teaspoon sized lumps of the coconut mix and roll then into balls. You can get 20 balls from that mixture.
4. You can see these balls in the top left photograph.

5. Next to the middle layer, mix the sticky rice flour with warm water and mix it to form a smooth dough.
6. Pinch off pieces of the dough, roll them into balls, flatten the balls to a disc. Each one of these discs will be used to wrap around a coconut ball, so make sure the discs are big enough.
7. Wrap the disc around the coconut balls and roll them between the palms of your hands to make them into smooth balls. You can see this in the top right photograph.

8. Next to the outside, in a saucepan, mix the rice flour and coconut milk, sugar, and salt together. Heat gently stirring all the time, the mixture will form a thick white paste as it cooks. This takes 3-5 minutes of cooking. Remove from the heat.

9. Next assembly: Cut greaseproof paper into 4x8cm pieces. Spoon a little of the outer mixture onto the paper.
10. Place a rice ball onto this mixture, and spoon over more of the outer layer. You can see this in the bottom left photograph.
11. Fold up the paper into a small triangular packet and staple it shut, or tie with string, as in the botto right photograph.
12. Steam for 10 minutes in a Chinese steamer. Eat warm or cold.

These coconut covered balls have a soft sweet centre, try eating them when they're still warm.

Ingredients
200 gms Sticky Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch Flour
100 ml Warm Water
100 gms Palm Sugar
3 Tablespoons Water
50 gms Ground Coconut
100 gms Grated Coconut
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Tablespoons Sugar

Preparation
1. Mix all the flours together, add the water and mix to a paste.
2. Take the paste and roll into 2cm balls. This will form the outside of these balls.
3. Mix 3 tablespoons water, with the palm sugar in a saucepan and bring it to the boil. Add the ground coconut and stir until its mixed, then removed from the heat.
4. Once it has cooled you can take some of this paste and roll it into 1 cm balls in you hands. These smaller balls will form the centre.
5. Take a sticky rice ball, flatten it in your hand to form a disc. Put a ground coconut ball in the centre of the disc, fold up the edges and crimp closed. You can then roll it between your two hands to round off the ball.
6. Boil a pan of water, drop the balls into the water to cook for 3 minutes, then remove and drain.
7. For the outside, mix the grated coconut, salt, and sugar together and roll the ball in that coating.

The warm sweet sticky rice & coconut adds creaminess, the strawberries add sourness, and in the centre, chopped strawberries in syrup add the sweetness. This makes a very delicious dessert.

Ingredients
500 gms Strawberries
100 gms Sticky Rice
300 gms Cococnut Milk
10 gms Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Syrup
100 gms Sugar
100 ml Water

Preparation
1. Soak the sticky rice in warm water overnight.
2. Make a sugar syrup, heat the 100gms of sugar with 100ml of water and boil slowly until the syrup is thick, then leave to cool.
3. When it is cool, chop two strawberries into fine pieces, and mix them with the syrup - this will form the centre of the plate.
4. Steam the sticky rice in a until cooked, then place in bowl and leave to cool a little.
5. To the sticky rice, add the 10 gms sugar, salt and coconut milk and mix well. Leave the rice to soak up the coconut milk.
6. To present the dish, slice the strawberries into thin slices and layer them with spoonfuls of the sticky rice mixture. Fill the centre with the strawberries in syrup.

Toddy palm is an orange fermented paste that smells acidic, a little like rotted vegetables (that is not a typo, it really does smell like rotted vegetables). The smell goes once it's cooked, and it's used in this recipe to broaden the flavours of the cake.

Ingredients 200 gms Toddy Palm
140 gms Rice Flour
150 gms Sugar
200 ml Coconut Milk
Ground Coconut
Pinch of Salt
Banana Leaves