Making kaya is a laborious process, involving hours of stirring over a low heat, and all that work results in a silky smooth texture packed full of flavour that works everywhere – most commonly on hot toast with cold salted butter and a cup of strong coffee. You will find many recipes on the internet offering shortcuts (often involving a blender), but none of them will give you the same luxurious taste and texture that doing it properly will.
It’s a taste that brings back my childhood and some of my happiest memories, and I want to share it with you, using the finest produce that I can find here in the UK, with no compromises. That means no artificial colourings, flavourings, or preservatives, and no shortcut methods. Try it – you will taste the difference.
What do I mean when I say “the finest produce”? Well, here’s what goes into each bottle of the original recipe pandan kaya:
- Clarence Court eggs: These eggs have an unbelievable golden yolk, and are full of flavour. In a blind taste test between kaya made with these eggs and with regular free range eggs, we preferred the one made with Clarence Court eggs every time – so the decision was simple. And they have high welfare standards too!
- Coconut milk: I choose to use coconut milk that does not have any stabilisers or preservatives added – nothing but coconut and water, just the way it should be.
- Pandan: I extract the juice from pandan leaves myself for each batch to get exactly the right flavour I’m looking for, and again, with none of the stabilisers or preservatives that come with commercial pandan extracts. Because this is a natural product, the colour is occasionally a deeper or lighter green, but the flavour of fresh pandan is unmistakable and irreplaceable.
- Golden cane sugar: I use this because it’s less refined than white sugar, and has a delightful buttery flavour that makes a difference to the taste of the kaya, but does not overpower the pandan. The perfect balance – Goldilocks’s sugar!