About this recipe
Thin, crisp-toasted bread spread thickly with kaya — a soft coconut-and-egg jam scented with pandan — and a cold slab of butter, served beside two barely-set soft-boiled eggs that are cracked into a saucer, seasoned with dark soy and white pepper, and either dipped into with the toast or eaten by the spoonful. It is the classic breakfast of the Hainanese-run kopitiam, eaten with a cup of strong kopi. The kaya is the point: it is not a plain jam, not a custard, and not a coconut pudding, but a spreadable set jam of coconut milk, egg and sugar.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings (with about 1 1/4 cups kaya)
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 50 minutes (mostly the kaya)
- Total
- 70 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains egg, dairy (butter), wheat (bread) and coconut. Vegetarian. Halal as written if the bread and butter are 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 kaya (makes about 1 1/4 cups / 300 g)
- 4 large eggs plus 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
- 1 cup (240 ml) coconut milk
- 4 pandan leaves, tied in a knot and bruised
- 1/4 tsp (1.5 g) salt
The toast and eggs
- 8 thin slices white bread, crusts removed if you like
- 4 tbsp (56 g) cold salted butter, sliced thin
- 8 soft-boiled eggs
- Dark sweet soy sauce, for the eggs
- Ground white pepper, for the eggs
Equipment
- Heatproof bowl set over a saucepan (double boiler), or a heavy non-stick saucepan
- Whisk
- Fine strainer
- Small saucepan or kettle for the eggs
- Toaster or grill
Method
- Make the kaya: whisk the whole eggs, yolks and sugar in the heatproof bowl until smooth and pale, then whisk in the coconut milk and salt.
- Set the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, add the knotted pandan leaves, and cook, stirring almost constantly with a whisk or spatula, 40-50 minutes. Do not let the water boil hard or the eggs will curdle.
- The kaya is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon and holds a trail — it will thicken further as it cools. If it looks at all grainy, push it through a fine strainer while hot.
- Discard the pandan, cool the kaya, and refrigerate until set and spreadable. It keeps about a week.
- Soft-boil the eggs: lower them into gently boiling water and cook 6 minutes exactly for just-set whites and runny yolks, then lift into cold water for 30 seconds to stop them and make them easier to open.
- Toast the bread until crisp and golden on both sides.
- Spread four slices thickly with kaya, lay two thin slabs of cold butter on each, and top with the remaining slices to make sandwiches. Cut into fingers or triangles.
- Crack the soft-boiled eggs into small bowls — two per person — and top each with a few drops of dark sweet soy and a shake of white pepper.
- Serve the kaya toast and the eggs together, warm. Dip the toast into the egg, or eat them side by side, with a cup of strong coffee.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Kaya Toast with Soft-Boiled Eggs 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.