Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle (雞蛋仔 "gai daan jai")

Image 1: My home-made Hong Kong Style Egg waffle

Other English names: Eggette, egg puff, bubble waffle, Hong Kong cakes (U.S)
Direct translation: "Little chicken eggs"



Food synopsis: Crispy-shelled with a soft and springy centre, egg waffles are essentially a unique mixture of eggs, flour and sugar. It's distinct flavour comes from a  particular 'secret ingredient'. See if you can work out which one it is from the recipe below.


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Egg waffles are characteristically egg-shaped spherical balls of wheat-flour batter, interconnected to each other in a hexagonal shape. In Chinese it’s called 雞蛋仔 (literally means little chicken eggs), and has been a popular street foods in Hong Kong for a long time. Clearly from my picture, I was too keen to try a piece before taking the photo, hence why it doesn't appear to be hexagonal.



Recipe
Source: Recipe sheet provided by "I love cake" store on purchase of an eggette pan/mold
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: 8 - 9 pieces for a 6.5 inch pan

Utensils
Hong Kong egg waffle mould (See Image 2)
wooden spoon
baking brush
one large measuring jug
a few large bowls (or mixing bowls)
electric kitchen scale
fork
cake cooling rack
flour sieve

Image 2: The Egg waffle pan, used and very hot!

Ingredients
140 grams plain flour
7.5 grams baking powder
1 tablespoon custard powder (replaced by 28g full cream milk powder)
28 grams tapioca starch
2 eggs
140 grams white sugar
28 grams evaporated milk
140 ml still water
28 grams vegetable oil, for making the egg batter (used olive oil this time)
small quantity of vegetable oil, for greasing the mould (used vegetable oil cooking spray instead)
2 drops vanilla essence (probably ended up ~10 ml, straight from the bottle)

Method

1. In a large pouring jug, beat the eggs and mix in the white sugar using a wooden stirrer  until combined. Add in gradually the evaporated milk and still water. Mix thoroughly.
2. Mix and sieve the plain flour + baking powder + custard powder + tapioca starch. Set aside.
3. Add the sieved flour mixture (2) into the egg mixture (1). Stir thoroughly until a smooth batter is form. Make sure there are no lumps.
4. Add in the vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Finally add in the vegetable oil.
6. Cover the batter with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
7. Take the batter out from the fridge half an hour prior to using; allowing it to return to room temperature. Put the batter into a large jug for ease in pouring so onto the mold if not already.(Skipped these step because I was too impatient and didn't plan for this when I decided to do this recipe)
8. On high heat, warm up each side of the mold. Splashes of water should immediately sizzle and evaporate when the pan is hot enough. 
9. Turn flame to medium-low heat and cook all egg waffles with this flame. 
10. Brush a thin layer of oil to grease the pan each time a new egg waffle is made.
11. With 1 side of the pan on the flame, fill it with batter until ~80% full. For me, it helped that I tipped the pan at an angle and poured from the high side, so that the batter can naturally overflow downwards to the lower part of the pan. Make sure there is enough batter to make connect each of the 'little eggs' together into a hexagonal slab.
12. Close the pan. Hold tightly closed and immediately flip the mould and expose the other side of the pan to heat. This initial flip allows the batter to fill the round shape evenly. Rotate sides every 30 seconds or so.
13. Continue flipping occasionally until each side has been exposed to the flame for 1 to 2 minutes or until the egg waffle is cooked and browned to your liking. When it is ready, it can be easily removed from the mold.
14. Shake out of mould or use a fork to remove the from the mould onto a cake cooling rack to cool. Leave it for at least 45 seconds for it to get its crispy shell
15. Repeat steps 8 to 11 until all egg batter is finished.

Where to buy the Egg waffle pan:
I Love Cake
Address:
Ground Floor, 338, Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong or
~188 Wanchai Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
See: www.ilovecake.hk