puto cheese

category: dessert
serving: makes 24 mini puto

i asked a friend to buy me this puto molds that i saw in ms. connie's foodblog. they are indeed cute and colorful. and when she saw it, she said she has like those also which she bought in manila. so, when she went for her yearly vacation in philippines, i asked her to buy me a bunch ans so she did. that's the reason why i was eager to make puto even if i have failed a couple of times before.

the fact of the matter is, this is my third attempt in preparing puto... embarrassing really but i want to document this one since it came out and tastes like puto. although it's not like the real one that you buy in the market but it's good enough for me. maybe my fourth attempt will be much, much better and even more puto-like already. i'm sure that i will be making puto again one of these days since makuy likes it because of the large chunk of cheese i placed on top of each puto.


i am much more confident now (i still had my fingers crossed though) since i already have electric mixer which kim bought me two months ago. before i was using wire whisk and my puto was a failure. you really have to have strong muscles in order to mix the eggwhites well untill it forms stiff peaks. using wire whisk was terrible, my arm still hurts until the next day. so, better use the mixer instead. my puto molds (it's like small planggana made of hard plastic) measures 2-1/4" in diameter and 1" in height. with these recipe i got from ms. connie's special puto i was able to make 24 putos.

ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened but not melted
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
5 tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup fresh milk
4 eggwhites
slices of quickmelting cheese

procedure:
in a bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.

in another bowl, cream the butter with 3 tbsp. of sugar. "cream" maens to beat until light in texture.

add the flour mixture and milk alternately into the butter-sugar mixture, mixing as you add.

beat the egg whites until stiff. "stiff" means that when you lift the beaters, stiff peaks are formed on the surface of the egg whites. "stiff peaks" means the tips do not bow down.

when peaks start to form, sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp. of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

fold the egg whites into the flour-milk mixture. "fold" means to mix lightly ans carefully so as not to break air bubbles. when you beat egg whites, the volume triples because of air bubbles which will make the puto light and soft, so you do not want to break them.

fill the puto molds ubtil about 3/4 full. top with cheese slices.

steam the puto about 20 minutes. if you're using metal steamer, you may have to place a towel or katsa cloth between the pan and the cover. the cloth will catch the steam and prevent the condensation from falling into the puto which will prevent them from rising properly. start the 20 minutes as soon as the water starts to boil.

cool before removing from the molds because the edges are still a bit wet and soggy while the puto is hot. if you remove them from the molds in that condition, you will disfigure them.