Kueh Lapis Recipe

Please note that this recipe is from my mum's recipe book, which she learnt at a Community Centre many years ago, and we have fine tuned it along the way to suit our taste. If you find the recipe similar to yours, it is just pure coincidence, afterall everyone of us learnt from somewhere and it could probably be from the same source.

Ingredients:

20 egg yolks

5 egg whites

550g salted butter (I used SCS butter, ~2 ¼ of 250g block)

300g castor sugar

170g flour

8 tbsp condensed milk

3 tbsp brandy or rum

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used Nielsen Massey pure vanilla extract)

1½ tsp ground mixed spices (I used ½ tsp McCormick Ground Cinnamon, ½ tsp McCormick Ground Nutmeg, ½ tsp vanilla extract)

Steps:
1) Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick creamy. Set it aside for use later.

2) Beat butter for a while, add in the condensed milk and continue to beat till creamy. 

3) Add (2) to (1). Fold in flour and vanilla extract.

4) Add the egg whites in, and mix slowly until all the egg whites are dissolved.

5) Add brandy or rum, and mix well.

6) Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions. Add the mixed spices to one portion and mix well. The other portion is plain.

7) Line a 9" square baking tin with baking paper and grease it. You can use the butter wrapper to grease it. Heat the tin.

8) Scoop ~3-4 tbsp (I used Chinese soup spoon) of the plain or spiced mixture, and use the back of the spoon to smooth out the mixture, reaching all corners of the tin. 

9) Bake the first layer using bottom and top fire. Other layers only top fire or grill.

10) After each layer is baked, remove from oven, 
- use a satay stick or toothpick to remove the air bubbles, 
- use lapis press to press the layer, 
- apply brandy or rum with a cooking brush on the layer (most recipes out there do not have this step, so you may omit this step but it would greatly enhance the fragrance & taste), 
- scoop ~3 tbsp of the mixture (alternating between the plan and spiced mixture) and smooth it out reaching all corners of the tin. 

If you want each layer to look even and nicer, you may wish to weigh each layer, ~125g for first layer and ~100g for subsequent layers, instead of using my estimation method.

Notes:
I'm using a Panasonic Microwave Oven, so these are the baking modes and temperature that I use:
- Preheat oven in conventional bake mode,
- use conventional bake 170 deg cel, ~5 mins for first layer,
- use grill low fire ~3½ mins+- for subsequent layers,
- use grill low fire ~2½ mins for last layer followed by conventional bake 150 deg cel for 1-2mins.
*As the oven gets heated up, the time taken to bake each layer may get shorter. Hence, you may wish to bake with shorter timing and check if the layer is brown enough. If the layer is not brown enough, continue to bake for a while more until you're satisfied with the brownness.