Kanom Tuay (ขนมถ้วย)

The Dessert in Little Cups

The name is the description: ชนมถ้วย, dessert-in-cups. It's steamed in ถ้วยตะไล — small shallow porcelain cups, the shape of a tin-lid candle, stacked in bamboo steamers at temple fairs and morning markets. You buy a cup or two, eat them warm, scrape the last smear out with a tiny wooden spoon, and return the cup to the vendor's tray.

The construction is two layers that must not mix. Below: a soft, dark-brown custard of palm sugar and pandan — the pandan for scent and the colour, the palm sugar for the deep caramel-toffee note. Above: salted coconut cream, set with a little rice flour. Steamed together, the top layer splits into tiny glossy eyes — Thai cooks call it แตกมัน, the fat splitting — and that's the doneness sign. Sweet below, salty above, warm, spooned from the cup.

The flours matter: rice flour for body, tapioca for the soft pull, and a little arrowroot (แป้งท้าวยายม่อม) for that silkiness no western pudding has a name for. Some recipes simplify to rice flour alone; the three-flour version is the classic one.

The Recipe (makes 8–10 pieces)

The Method

1. Pandan water. Blend the pandan leaves with a little of the water, strain through muslin. The clear, green, fragrant water is the bottom layer's scent and colour.
2. Dissolve the palm sugar. Knead it with water, a little at a time — palm sugar comes in a block and needs the massage — then stir in the pandan water and strain everything.
3. Mix and rest. The three flours with the coconut milk and palm-sugar water, whisked smooth, then rested 30 minutes so the flours swell fully.
4. The top layer. Coconut cream, water, rice flour, salt and sugar, stirred smooth and strained.
5. Heat the cups. Three to four minutes in the steamer, empty — hot cups cook the custard evenly.
6. Pour and steam. Each cup three-quarters full of the bottom batter; steam, covered, until it sets.
7. The coconut layer. Poured over each, then steam again until the top splits into small glossy eyes. That's the sign.
8. Serve warm. Cool to warm, then scoop each custard from its cup with a spoon.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

• One custard, stirred. The two layers — sweet pandan below, salted coconut above — are the dish. A single blended "coconut pudding" is a different dessert.
• Muffin tins and ramekins. The tiny shallow cups are the steamer geometry — deep vessels cook the middle last and the layers mix. Little cups, or the aluminium set Thai grocers sell.
• Green food colouring. The colour comes from pandan water. Fake-green coconut pudding with no pandan is a costume.
• Skipping the rest. The 30-minute rest is when the flours swell. Unrested batter steams grainy.
• Fridge-cold. Kanom tuay is eaten warm, in the hand, from the cup. The chilled version loses the custard's softness.
• White sugar instead of palm. Palm sugar is the toffee depth the dessert is named for.

UK Ingredient Notes

• The cups: Thai grocers sell the aluminium kanom tuay cup sets with their steamer trays — the correct kit is under a tenner. Failing that, small espresso cups or Thai-chilli dipping bowls do the job.
• Pandan leaves: frozen at Thai grocers — they keep forever and thaw into the blender. The fresh ones are better if they're green.
• Palm sugar: the soft block kind, sold in tubs or discs; it dissolves when kneaded with water. Dark brown soft sugar is an emergency stand-in, not an equal.
• Rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot: all standard at Thai grocers; tapioca flour is the same as tapioca starch.
• Coconut cream vs milk: the bottom layer wants coconut milk, the top wants the thick cream — buy the tinned cream and thin it, or use the top of a settled tin of milk.
• A bamboo or metal steamer over simmering water, lid wrapped in a tea towel so the steam doesn't drip onto the custards.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.