Melt-in-your-mouth tapioca cookies (banh men)
Banh men are tiny baked cookies from the Mekong Delta, made mostly from tapioca starch, coconut milk and milk, so they melt the moment they touch your tongue. Each little ivory ball is fragrant with coconut and milk, a snack that children and grown-ups alike reach for during the Lunar New Year.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Rising or chilling
- 15 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 5 min
- Method
- Oven-baked
Ingredients
Instructions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 150°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Banh men need a low oven so they dry out inside while keeping their ivory color. The oven is ready when it has reached temperature and the indicator light turns off.
Step 2
Sift 200 g tapioca starch, 30 g milk powder, 60 g powdered sugar and a pinch of salt together into a large bowl. Sifting well spreads the milk powder and sugar evenly, so no cookie ends up sweeter or blander than the rest. The dry mix is ready when it is fine and loose with no lumps of milk powder.
Step 3
Add 30 g softened unsalted butter to the bowl and squeeze and rub it into the dry mix with your fingertips. Butter coating the tapioca starch makes the baked cookies light and crisp instead of hard as pebbles. The mixture is ready when it looks like damp sand and clumps loosely when squeezed.
Step 4
Whisk 18 g egg yolks with 70 g coconut milk, drizzle it slowly into the bowl and knead gently into a ball, then wrap it well and let it rest for about fifteen minutes. Resting lets the tapioca starch absorb the liquid evenly, so the dough rolls smoothly without cracking. The dough is ready when it is soft and pliable like modeling clay and does not stick to your hands.
Step 5
Pinch off pieces of dough the size of the tip of your little finger, roll them into balls and arrange them on the baking sheet about one centimeter apart. Small, even balls bake at the same rate and turn crisp right to the center. The tray is ready when the balls are perfectly round, smooth and free of cracks.
Step 6
Bake at 150°C for about 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once halfway through. Gentle, even heat drives out all the moisture without darkening the cookies. They are done when the bottoms are just turning pale golden, the tops are still ivory and they sound crisp when tapped lightly.
Step 7
Slide the whole sheet of parchment onto a rack and let the cookies cool completely before putting them in a jar. While warm they are still slightly soft, and they only reach their signature melt-away crispness once fully cooled. They are ready when a test bite is crisp and then melts right away in your mouth.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Mixing bowl
- Sieve
- Spatula
- Kitchen scale
- Wire cooling rack
Tips
- If the dough is a little dry and cracks as you roll it, add coconut milk a little at a time; if it sticks to your hands, sprinkle in a bit more tapioca starch.
- You can replace part of the coconut milk with pandan juice for fragrant, pale green banh men.
- Portioning the dough with a small measuring spoon helps keep the cookies the same size.
Storage
Once completely cool, store banh men in a tightly sealed glass jar in a dry place for about two weeks. If they go soft, bake them again at 120°C for five minutes and they will be crisp as new.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The cookies are hard as pebbles and do not melt in your mouth.
- The butter was not rubbed in evenly or the dough was overworked. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like sand and knead only enough to bring it together.
- The cookies split open or turn dark golden.
- The oven was too hot or the dough was a little dry. Lower the temperature to 140°C, bake a little longer and add a few drops of coconut milk to the dough.
This recipe is based on the common ratios for this bake and is written entirely in our own words.
