Khanom Piak Orn (Jackfruit Sweets)

As it’s been a while since I last made a Thai dessert I thought it was time to do another. We don’t eat a huge amounts of desserts and sweets in our house as my husband and I both prefer savoury food but sometimes it’s nice to try new things. Thai desserts/ sweets do have a tendency towards being either really very sweet or an (unusual for Western tastes) mix of sweet and savoury ingredients in one recipe. Like this one, the sweet ones also lean towards being quite heavy and sticky. So this recipe does go a long way and is best made for lots of people to share. To the best of my knowledge, the Thai name literally means wet board sweet.

Makes 1 tray (enough for lots of people!) use:

• 2/3 can of evaporated milk
• 2/3 can of coconut milk (remainders of both can be frozen if needed)
• 250ml water
• about 3 or 4 pieces of canned jackfruit (mango would work well too), finely chopped
• 100g sugar
• 120g of rice flour
• 3 tablespoons of cornflour
• desiccated coconut 

Line a 1 inch deep baking tray with parchment paper first off. Then gently heat together the two milks, water and sugar in a large pan until the sugar has dissolved. Pop in the jackfruit and give it a stir. Gently tip the two flours in and keep stirring, make sure everything is mixed until smooth and keep stirring. After 5 minutes or so the mixture becomes very thick and paste like. Pour it out into the lined baking tray and sprinkle with the desiccated coconut. Leave it somewhere cool to set and after a few hours it can easily be cut into your preferred shape with a large knife.