About this recipe
A mountain of finely shaved ice heaped over a hidden layer of sweet red beans, attap chee, grass jelly and sweet corn, drenched in rose syrup and a green pandan or brown gula Melaka syrup, finished with a pour of evaporated milk and, often, a spoon of creamed corn or a scoop of ice cream. The name means bean ice, and the beans at the bottom are the historical heart of it. It is a Singapore and Malaysian hawker dessert, and it is built differently from the Filipino halo-halo in its tall glass and from the Indonesian es cendol with its worm-shaped green jelly — here everything hides under a dome of ice.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 25 minutes (plus preparing the components)
- Cook
- 10 minutes for the syrup
- Total
- 35 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains dairy (evaporated milk). Vegan if the milk and any ice cream are omitted. Gluten-free. Halal.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The base layers, about 2 tbsp of each per bowl
- 1 cup (240 g) sweetened red azuki beans, cooked or canned
- 1/2 cup (120 g) attap chee (palm seeds) in syrup, drained
- 1/2 cup (120 g) grass jelly (cincau), cut into small cubes
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sweet corn kernels, cooked or canned
- 1/2 cup (120 g) sweetened palm fruit or nata de coco, drained (optional)
The ice and syrups
- 8 cups (about 1.2 kg) finely shaved ice
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) rose syrup (bandung syrup), bright pink
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) pandan syrup, green, or gula Melaka syrup, brown
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) evaporated milk, well chilled
To finish (optional)
- 4 tbsp (60 g) creamed sweet corn
- 4 small scoops ice cream, or a drizzle of condensed milk
- 2 tbsp (20 g) roasted peanuts, crushed
Equipment
- Ice shaver, or a food processor that crushes ice finely
- Small saucepan for the syrup
- 4 shallow bowls or sundae dishes
Method
- Chill all the components and the serving bowls thoroughly. Warm anything and the ice melts on contact.
- Spoon the red beans, attap chee, grass jelly, sweet corn and palm fruit if using into the bottom of each bowl, about 2 tbsp of each, so they form a hidden base.
- Shave or crush the ice to a fine snow just before serving. Mound it generously over the components in each bowl, pressing lightly into a dome that hides everything beneath.
- Drizzle each dome with about 1 tbsp rose syrup and 1 tbsp pandan or gula Melaka syrup, letting the colours streak the white ice.
- Pour about 2 tbsp chilled evaporated milk over each dome.
- Top, if you like, with a spoon of creamed corn, a small scoop of ice cream or a drizzle of condensed milk, and a scatter of crushed peanuts.
- Serve immediately, with a spoon, and eat by digging down through the ice to the sweet beans and jelly beneath.
- Encourage stirring near the end so the melting ice, syrups and beans come together into a sweet slush.
The Complete Edition
Ice Kacang sits in the Singapore chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Singapore chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.