bánh cáy — Vietnam

Bánh cáy is a chewy Vietnamese confection built from sticky rice that is cooked, dried into strips and fried until puffed, then bound together with a thick sugar and malt syrup and mixed with roasted sesame, peanuts, dried mandarin peel and ginger. The name refers to the crab roe it is said to resemble in appearance, though no crab is used in the recipe. The confection is reported from Thái Bình province in northern Vietnam, where it is made in blocks and cut into slices for sale and for gifting. It is commonly served alongside tea, in the manner of other sweet, chewy confections eaten between meals. To prepare it, glutinous rice is soaked, cooked and spread out to dry until firm, then cut into strips and fried briefly until crisp and puffed. Sugar, water and malt syrup are simmered into a thick, sticky syrup, into which the fried rice strips, mandarin peel, ginger and a little salt are folded, along with a natural coloring such as gardenia for a golden tone. The warm mixture is pressed firmly into a square mold, left to cool and firm up, then unmolded and sliced. The balance of textures separates one maker's bánh cáy from another: some favor a higher ratio of puffed rice for a lighter, crunchier bite, while others use more syrup for a denser, chewier block, and the amount of ginger, mandarin peel and sesame can shift the aroma considerably. The core method — fried rice strips bound in syrup with sesame and peanuts — stays constant.