How to Cook Sugar-free Inutak

I was surfing Youtube several weeks ago and a stumble upon a video featuring inutak.  So inutak is a Filipino glutinous rice dish originated in Pateros.  Inutak came from the word “utak” or brain.  This dish is gooey and sticky which resembles a brain.  So that’s how it got its name.  From what I’ve read in some articles, this method of cooking is somewhat similar in cooking Japanese mochi.  Inutak is more on the gooey side compared to mochi, though.

I first encountered inutak during one of my friend’s uncle birthday celebration.  It is so delicate, gooey and sticky.  It may look unappetizing but be warned that it is really delicious.  It has a nice sweet coconut flavor and best served when warm.

My friends in the office gave me a bottle of Good Shepherd’s Ube Jam and I thought of filling my inutak with it.  So if you are familiar with Good Shepherd’s Ube Jam you know how delicious and creamy it is right?  Their jam is so smooth, rich and creamy which sets it apart from other ube jam.   So I found a kilo of glutinous rice powder in our pantry which my mom bought several weeks ago and she thought it’s simply rice flour.  I think she will use this to cook puto.

Then I remembered I was given some Jolly products last Christmas which includes a couple of Jolly Coconut Milk or kakang gata.  Kakang gata is the first squeeze of coconut milk you extract from the coconut.  It’s thick and rich.  The usual recipe uses white sugar but in my case I will use monk fruit extract.  Here he goes again, monk fruit extract.  Yeah!  Like I’ve told before I have a liter of this and since this dish is not sensitive to the effect of sugar like in baking, I decided to use it.  For this recipe I used only two tablespoons of monk fruit extract and it already gave the dish the right amount of sweetness.

Maybe you are wondering how does the dish taste like when you substitute monk fruit extract for sugar.  As you bite on the dish it would seem that the dish is bland, but, as you started to chew and the more time it stays in your palate you will start to notice the sweetness of the food.  It is like a sweet aftertaste flavor.

Almost all of the original recipes of inutak uses pure coconut milk.  However, in my case, I decided to use a combination of coconut milk and evaporated milk.  So why is that?  I love coconut milk but sometimes the coconut milk flavor is just an overkill and my tatay is not a fan of coconut milk.  Besides, the evaporated milk gave it a richer flavor.  You want your inutak to be more flavorful?  Add some egg yolks and butter.  The butter made it extra flavorful.

If you decided not to add the ube jam filling to this inutak recipe, then, this is completely sugar-free recipe.  However, if you add the ube filling it will be a not-so-sugar-free inutak recipe.  I just decided to add the ube jam for extra flavor.  You can place then in a big baking pan but I decided to baked it in individual lyaneras.  So lyanera is this small oblong-shaped baking pan which where you usually cook a leche flan.

Procedure

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Mix the coconut milk, evaporated milk, beaten egg yolks and monk fruit extract in a nonstick pan.  The pan should be big enough to accomodate all the ingredients.  You can use a regular pan but I suggest a nonstick pan.  You can substitute a cup of sugar for the monk fruit extract.

Slowly add the glutinous rice powder and mix until you have a nice smooth batter.  Switch on heat and cook the mixture over very low heat with continuous stirring.  When the mixture started to warm up, add the butter and continue stirring.  The heat should be low that the mixture will not simmer or boil.  I bet you don’t want scrambled egg in your inutak, right?

When the mixture started to thicken and it has a gooey and sticky texture, it means it is cooked.  Quickly transfer the mixture into six lyaneras brushed with butter.  If you decided to fill it it the ube jam, simply placed half of the inutak into the six lyaneras and fill it with the ube jam.  Then, place the remaining half into the lyaneras and smoothen the surface using a spatula.

Add one tablespoon each of the remaining coconut milk on the inutak and smoothen it evenly.  Bake for 10 minutes or so or until the top became golden brown.  It will basically depends on your oven so you can check it from time to time if it is enough.

Download Recipe Below.