Easy Fresh Homemade Kaya (from scratch!)

Homemade kaya has been something that I've dreamt of making for a while now! I've always been a fan of kaya but the ones you can buy at the supermarket just seem like an everyday breakfast item, not a luxury spread (if you know what I mean). They're usually really sweet and are sticky and tacky, not silky and lucious like I like my spreads to be. Hence, this kaya recipe was created! 

I adapted a few recipes together to create this, but basically kaya is just coconut egg jam and there are only a few ingredients required! 

Ingredients:

- 200g eggs (roughly 4 whole eggs and 2 additional egg yolks) 

- 200g coconut cream

- 100g sugar (more or less, to your own taste!)

- 3 stalks of pandan leaves 

- 100ml water 

- Pinch of salt 

Steps:

1. Firstly, create the fresh pandan extract. Cut the pandan leaves into smaller piecses and add into a blender with the 100ml water. Blend for around 1 min on high, stir down the mixture and blend again. You should get the pandan blended into coarse fibers and green liquid! 

Strain the pandan leaves and liquid through a sieve and squeeze the pandan fibers to extract every little bit of the pandan extract. There you go - fresh pandan extract! 

2. Next, separate your 2 eggs and save the whites for another recipe. Beat the 4 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks together and strain through a sieve, into a heat proof bowl.

3. Add the coconut cream and sugar to the eggs in the heat proof bowl and add the pandan extract and salt. (You can add more or less pandan extract depending on the colour and strength of pandan flavour you want). You could even add some pandan extract if it still isn't green/pandan-y enough for you!

4. Heat the mixture over a double boiler.  To do this, boil some water in a pot and reduce to a simmer. Then place the heat proof bowl on top, making sure that the simmering water does not touch the heat proof bowl. Stir the mixture vigorously with a whisk. 

5. Continuously stir on a low heat until the kaya thickens. Remove from heat and continue to stir. It will continue to thicken as it cools. 

6. If the mixture appears to have curdled, don't panic! Simply continue stirring until the mixture is thickened and place the entire mixture into a blender, and blend for 1-2 minutes. You should end up with a thick and lucious spread that is super coconutty and fragrant! 

7. Allow to cool completely before storing in air tight containers in the refridgerator. Best eaten within a week on toasted bread with a pat of butter! This recipe makes around 3 tubs that are in the picture, around 400g of kaya! You can scale the recipe 

Enjoy!