Pandan Kaya Jam
Savor Pandan Kaya Jam, a silky coconut-egg spread bursting with fragrant pandan sweetness!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 1.5 cups 1x
- Category: Asian Dessert
- Method: Intermediate
- Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
Scale
Pandan extract (homemade — preferred):
- 6–8 fresh pandan leaves, washed and chopped
- 60 ml water
- (Or skip the pandan leaves entirely and use 1 tsp pandan paste added with the coconut milk)
Kaya base:
- 4 large eggs + 2 yolks, room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 250 ml (1 cup) full-fat coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Make the pandan juice (skip if using paste): blend chopped pandan leaves with the 60 ml water for 1–2 minutes until vivid green. Strain through a fine sieve into a small jug, pressing hard on the pulp. You should have ~50 ml of deep-green juice. Set aside.
- In a large heatproof bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, and caster sugar until pale and smooth (about 1 minute). Do not aerate.
- Whisk in the coconut milk, pandan juice (or pandan paste), and salt until uniform.
- Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean heatproof bowl — this removes chalazae (egg cords) for a perfectly silky finish.
- Set the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water (the bowl should NOT touch the water). Heat the water on low — kaya cooks gently or it scrambles.
- Stir constantly with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl. After about 10 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken; after 25–40 minutes total, it will be the consistency of thick custard and coat the back of a spoon. A finger drawn through the coating should leave a clean line that holds.
- For ultra-smooth restaurant-grade texture, blitz the warm kaya with an immersion blender for 30 seconds.
- Transfer to a clean glass jar. Cool to room temperature uncovered (about 30 minutes), then refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set fully.
Notes
- Constant stirring is non-negotiable. If you walk away, the egg cooks against the bowl and you get scrambled flecks — the kaya won’t be salvageable. Set a podcast on, this is a 30-minute meditation.
- For the Hainanese-style brown kaya (darker color, more caramel notes), replace 100 g of caster sugar with 100 g gula melaka (palm sugar). Caramelize 30 g of the gula melaka in a dry pan until amber, whisk into the finished kaya off heat.
- Storage: keeps 2 weeks refrigerated in an airtight jar. Freezes well up to 3 months — thaw overnight in the fridge.
- Classic uses: kaya toast (toasted milk bread + cold butter + kaya), spread inside melon pan (see Pick 2), filling for steamed buns, swirled into vanilla ice cream, layered into coconut cream cakes.
Find it online: https://zhangcatherine.com/pandan-kaya-jam/