Baking Bengkulu Tarts the Traditional Way

Bengkulu tart is a festive snack that was originated from Bangka Hulu, Bengkulu, Indonesia.

The place which we visited in the District of Hulu Selangor during our tour of Eat.Travel.Write Selangor International Culinary Adventure 3.0, the community here has strong family connections with that part of Indonesia.

The dough of the tart is made from a mixture of wheat flour, sugar, coconut milk, eggs, baking powder and oil. The time consuming part is that the dough has to be kept overnight before it can be shaped.

This baker, Pn. Maslamat, 66 years of age, makes these tarts with two different fillings: natural and pineapple.

The natural filling is a combination of grated coconut, brown sugar, corn flour, sugar and water. As for the pineapple filling, it is homemade from the fresh pineapple fruits that are planted around the garden of the cottage.

Before these tarts are placed in the traditional oven that is fired by coconut husks, they are coated with a mixture of eggs that have been added with orange colouring, to give the tarts an orangy shine.

The tarts are only baked for about five minutes in the hot oven and removed once they changed to brownish in colour.

This was my first time seeing this leaf-like tart. So, naturally I have never tasted it until now. It is chunky with only a little filling. I would have preferred them to be more refined with a larger portion of filling.

Would you like to place an order for Benkulu tarts, which are also known as Bangka Hulu tarts? You may contact Pn. Maslamat bt. Ishak at +603-60463935.

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