Maltose Crackers 麥芽糖夾餅

April 4, 2019

Maltose Crackers 麥芽糖夾餅

Maltose Crackers, hong kong, snack, street food, 麥芽糖, 麥芽糖夾餅

By Ellen L. Published: 2019-04-04

Here's a treat straight from the past of Hong Kong! These simple to make and yummilicious snacks were sold from street vendors to children in the 50s and 60s of Hong Kong. The conveniently sandwiched stick allows children to eat their snacks and run around at the same time. A type of Hong Kong lollipop, if you will.

Both savory and sweet, these Maltose Crackers 麥芽糖夾餅 are unique snacks from Hong Kong's past! Plus they're so easy to make that kids can do it themselves, with some supervision during the maltose part...you don't want to come back and find them ensnarled in a sugary web!

Saltines, a staple of the world since the early 1800s, is not only simple and tasty but very useful as well. We always have some saltines around in our house to sandwich whatever tasty tidbits we want to snack on be it savory or sweet. Isn't it amazing that these little ubiquitous little crackers have been around all over the world for that long?

The Chinese have been making maltose sugar 麥芽糖 since the 16 century BC. Maltose sugar is a sticky very thick syrup made of malted rice and barley grains. It's about half as sweet as regular sugar and has a texture like very stiff honey.

At room temperature the maltose is so stiff in fact that if you hold that jar of maltose upside down it's not going to move. Not for a long while anyways. The trick to pick up some maltose to use just get your chopsticks, stab it in and twist and lift and twist until you have the desired amount of maltose.

Lay that maltose that you've twirled onto your chopsticks onto the backside of a saltine. So lovely golden and gleaming that maltose!

Lay a skewer stick into the maltose and then cover with another cracker. Press down, spreading that lovely sticky maltose evenly between the crackers and presto! You've got yourself a Hong Kong style Maltose Cracker lollipop!

Maltose Crackers Recipe 麥芽糖夾
(makes 6) Prep time: 5 mins Cooking time: 0 mins

Ingredients

Directions:

Lay out 6 saltines bottom side up. Poke a pair of chopsticks into maltose, then lift and twist to get approximately 1 tbsp of maltose onto the chopstick.

Transfer to saltine, using a spoon to help transfer and being careful not to press too hard and break the cracker. Wet spoon and use back of spoon to gently spread the maltose evenly.

Press bamboo sticks into the maltose, leaving approx 4"sticking out from cracker's edge to allow a hold while eating. Place the other 6 saltines over, top side up, press down lightly and you're ready to enjoy!

To store put in parchment paper separated layers in an air tight container and eat within 3 days.

Blasts from the Past at The Hong Kong Cookery: