Puto (Filipino Steamed Rice Cakes)

Where Americans have cornbread and dinner rolls, Filipinos have puto, a steamed savory cake most often made of rice flour. It’s usually served as a side for stews, especially dinuguan (Filipino pork blood stew), or eaten by itself as a satisfying snack. Spanish speakers might do a double take at the name, but it has nothing to do with the Spanish slur that it sounds like. The name, like the dish itself, has indigenous roots and comes from the Tamil word “puttu,” which means “portioned”, referring to how the individual cakes are pinched off and portioned from one large dough. Puto—along with dishes such as bibingka and kare-kare—is living evidence of our vestigial ties with India, which date back to precolonial times.

While “puto” is often associated with being made from rice flour, it is actually a blanket term for indigenous steamed cakes made with various types of flour or grated vegetables, not just rice. Puto can vary in shape, ingredients, or cooking method from region to region. For example, puto lanson, from my region, the Visayas, is made with grated cassava, while puto lusong from Pampanga is flavored with anise seeds, as is puto Manapla from the municipality of the same name—although the two snacks differ in shape and presentation. Popular during the Christmas season, puto bumbong is another puto variety found throughout the Philippines. The name bumbong refers to how the heirloom variety of black sticky rice called piruritong is steamed in bamboo tubes called bumbong.

This recipe is for one of the most popular iterations of puto found throughout the Philippines, puto bigas (rice puto) or puto puti (white puto). Before the American occupation of the Philippines, rice puto was traditionally made by soaking rice for at least a day, grinding it in a stone mill, and then making a batter called galapong. The batter then would sit and naturally ferment until small gas bubbles developed in the dough which produced a light and fluffy puto texture and its slightly sour flavor. It was then divided and shaped into individual round portions using a specialty mold known as a putuhan before steaming until light and fluffy.

My version of puto puti is inspired by this traditional method, but relies on store-bought ground rice flour (not glutinous or sweet rice flour) and instant yeast—commercial yeast was introduced to the Philippines after the American occupation and is now commonly used in rice puto. Sure, you could still grind your own rice to make puto, using a stone grinder or a Vitamix, but I found that using store-bought rice flour is easier and the result is just as good. The stand-in of instant yeast for the traditional longer fermentation saves on time, and the yeast still emparts the desired slight tang and fluffy texture to the dough.

To ensure a tender and fluffy puto texture once steamed, a cooked flour paste, also known as a tangzhong, is incorporated into the dough. Adding this gelled starchy paste is a great way to add a high amount of moisture without making the texture of the dough too wet and difficult to shape. The final dough is supple and pliable, but still easy to portion into small individual molds.

Once steamed until puffed and firm, puto is delicious as-is, but can also be used as a jumping-off point for variations: shaped raw puto can be topped with cheese, salted eggs, halaya (purple yam jam), or stuffed with stewed meat before steaming, or cooked puto can be topped with flan to serve. With puto, the possibilities are endless.