DIY Crispy Apam Balik

Apam Balik (煎弄包) is one of my favourite street food because I love eating the peanut fillings in it. I buy it almost every weekend at the Batu 11 Cheras morning market.  I would have bought it for my son too but he prefers the crispy type. So, I ventured out to learn how to make it after seeing that many of my friends from my former school days could make them so well.

One of my friends shared the mould with cover for making Apam Balik that she has. She bought them from Melaka thirty years ago!

I am sure you have seen the 5" or the 7" or the 10" in size flat pan currently used by vendors of Apam Balik.  You do not have to buy any of them to make your own Apam Balik.

I used this 20cm non stick pot which I bought recently.

I found this Crispy Apam Balik recipe at What to Cook Today. I made some changes to it and cooked it last night. For the milk, I used Carnation evaporated milk.

If you use a non stick pot, like I did, you do not have to apply oil to its surface before you cook it.  

When I applied too much oil to the pot, this was how it turned out.  The colour was uneven. So, I ate my mistake.

Once it is cooked, you can loosen the edge with a spatula. You then pull on it with a tong to fold your Apam Balik in half, right in the pot.  I used this sugar tong.

  

Once it is folded, it will be easier to remove it from the pot with the tong and the spatula.  

This is how my first piece turned out.

As I have to cook lunch before I rush off to the bike shop before 10.00am, I decided to use up all the batter that I made and kept overnight in this mixing bowl with cover from Igozo. 

I was able to make eight pieces because I used my rice scoop to pour the batter in the pot to cook.  My Apam Balik did not turn out very crispy though the edges were. So, if you want your Apam Balik to be crispy, pour in less batter because the thinner the layer is, the crispier it will turn out. 

I applied the peanut butter filling only on the two peices that I ate.  The rest, without fillings, were kept to be eaten the following morning for breakfast. 

I used the same mixing bowl to store them and kept it covered in the fridge.

This morning, we used the air fryer to heat up two pieces for five minutes and they turned out crispy.  My daughter likes it, as is, without any fillings added.  I had mine with peanut butter, of course.

Here is another version from Asian Inspirations which I have not tried making.

This Apam Balik recipe from Lauren's Kitchen is interesting as it uses instant yeast.

If you prefer the less crispy version, you can watch her making it.

 

This is a follow up to the remaining Apam Balik I made.  I should not have used the mixing bowl to store them. I should have layered each piece with a kitchen towel and store them in a larger container that will allow me to lay them flat in it.  Today (13 November), I discovered that they were stuck together and they broke up into pieces when I try to remove them to reheat in the airfryer.

This time, as I wanted them to turn out more crispy, I heated one side up for three minutes and turned them over to heat up for another four minutes. They tasted alright without the peanut filllings. The last peice I made was the crunchiest because I used the last remaining batter which is less than a scoop.

I will stick to my friend's suggestion. Instead of cooking the batter up ahead, I will only cook the quantity I want to eat.  I was told that I can keep the batter in the fridge for more than a week.