Kuih Mor

Ingredients

The flour

• 350 gplain flour
• dry-roasted, see the method
• or 300 g plain flour
• and 50 g cornflour

The fat

• 200 gghee
• or clarified butter
• softened but not melted
• or 200 g solid vegetable shortening

The sweetening

• 120 gicing sugar
• sifted
• or to taste

Sometimes added

• a pinch of salt
• half a teaspoon vanilla
• 50 gground almonds
• or ground cashews
• the seeds of 2 cardamom pods
• ground

To finish

• extra icing sugar
• to dust or to roll in

To serve

• at Hari Raya
• with coffee or tea
• in a sealed jar on the table

Directions

1. Put the flour in a dry heavy pan. Set it over a low heat. Stir it constantly with a spatula. Give it fifteen to twenty minutes. Keep the heat low and keep stirring. Spread the flour on a tray. Bake it at one hundred and forty degrees. Give it about twenty minutes, stirring twice.
2. Let the roasted flour cool completely. That takes at least an hour. Warm flour melts the ghee immediately. Spread it out to cool faster. Sift the cooled flour. Butter contains water, which develops gluten. It should be soft but not melted. Take it out of the refrigerator an hour ahead. In a warm kitchen it may already be soft. Beat the ghee and icing sugar together.
3. Beat until pale and creamy. Give it three or four minutes. Add the vanilla and cardamom if using. Add the roasted flour gradually. Add the ground nuts if using them.
4. Mix it in with a spatula or your hands. Mix only until it comes together. Do not knead it at all. Squeeze a small ball in your fist. It should hold its shape. Wrap it and chill it for thirty minutes. It also helps the biscuits hold their shape.
5. Take small pieces of dough. Roll them into balls between your palms. Make them about the size of a large marble. Press them firmly as you roll. These need compressing to hold together. Squeeze firmly, then roll to smooth it. Keep them small. Lay them on a lined tray.
6. Bake at one hundred and fifty degrees. These must not brown. Leave them on the tray for ten minutes. Do not move them at all while hot. Use a thin spatula. Cool them completely on a rack. Dust them heavily with icing sugar. Or roll them in it while barely warm.
7. Serve them at room temperature. Serve them from a sealed jar. They keep three weeks in an airtight jar. Keep them sealed or they absorb moisture. Do not refrigerate them. Let it soften before shaping.

Technique

• Dry-roast the flour first. That is not optional — it removes moisture, giving a shorter and more crumbly biscuit, cooks out the raw taste and adds a faint nutty flavour. Skipping it gives an ordinary shortbread. Fifteen to twenty minutes over low heat with constant stirring, or twenty minutes at 140 degrees in the oven.
• Do not let the flour brown. It should turn only very faintly cream and smell nutty; browned flour tastes bitter and colours the biscuits.
• Cool the roasted flour completely, at least an hour. Warm flour melts the ghee on contact and gives a greasy dough that will not hold.
• Use ghee softened but not melted. Its lack of water is what makes it right here — butter’s water develops gluten, and melted ghee gives a greasy heavy dough.
• Mix only until it comes together and never knead it. Working the dough develops what little gluten there is and makes the biscuits tough.
• Squeeze the balls firmly as you shape them. These need compressing to hold together, and a loosely rolled ball collapses in the oven.
• Bake low, at 150 degrees, and keep them almost white. A pale biscuit is the correct result; high heat colours them before they set.
• They will feel soft in the oven and that is normal. They firm up entirely as they cool, and baking them longer hoping they will harden is the commonest mistake here.
• Do not move them for ten minutes after baking. The ghee is liquid while hot and only sets as they cool — that setting fat is the entire structure, and they break at a touch before then.
• Test the dough by squeezing a ball in your fist. Holding its shape is right; crumbling entirely means more ghee, greasy and sticky means more flour.
• Keep them one-mouthful sized. Large ones are hard to handle and fall apart.
• Keep them in a sealed jar, where they last three weeks. Exposed to air they absorb moisture and lose their crumble — that keeping quality is why they are made in quantity for Hari Raya.

Substitutions

• Solid vegetable shortening replaces ghee for a dairy-free version, though the flavour is plainer.
• Clarified butter replaces ghee directly.
• Fifty grams of cornflour in place of some plain flour gives an even shorter biscuit.
• Ground almonds or cashews add richness and are common.
• Cardamom or vanilla flavour the dough; plain is equally normal.
• Rolling them in icing sugar rather than dusting gives a thicker white coat.

Variations

• Kuih makmur in Malaysia is the closest relative, often filled with sweetened ground peanuts.
• Kuih momo is another Malay melting biscuit made with milk powder.
• Putri salju in Indonesia is crescent-shaped and heavily dusted.
• Ghraybeh in the Levant works on exactly the same principle.
• Polvorones in Mexico and kourabiedes in Greece are the western relatives.
• A version with a ground peanut filling is made in some Bruneian households.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kuih Mor?

Kuih Mor is a snack from Brunei: crumbly biscuit of ghee and flour that dissolves in the mouth, made for Hari Raya.

How long does Kuih Mor take to make?

Kuih Mor takes 30 minutes plus chilling of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 40. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kuih Mor?

Yes, within limits. Solid vegetable shortening replaces ghee for a dairy-free version, though the flavour is plainer. Clarified butter replaces ghee directly. Fifty grams of cornflour in place of some plain flour gives an even shorter biscuit. Ground almonds or cashews add richness and are common. Cardamom or vanilla flavour the dough; plain is equally normal. Rolling them in icing sugar rather than dusting gives a thicker white coat.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kuih Mor?

Mix it in with a spatula or your hands. Mix only until it comes together. Do not knead it at all. Squeeze a small ball in your fist. It should hold its shape. Wrap it and chill it for thirty minutes. It also helps the biscuits hold their shape.