Chinese New Year Goodies – Love letters (Kuih Kapit)

Picture credit of Shaun@KL and Brenda Lee

What is Chinese New Year without the ubiquitous Love Letters or Kuih Kapit making an appearance? Go to any Chinese home during this festival time and you can almost be assured that you will be served some form of this biscuit.

Some people call them egg rolls, but egg rolls (although sharing the same roll shape) are quite different. Love letters are very very light unlike the thicker texture of egg rolls I’ve eaten, and love letters have a lovely print design on them. Amy Beh has a relatively easy recipe for love letters or kuih kapit but you’ll need to buy the mould.

I’ve seen people making it and its no laughing matter. The mould being made of metal gets very hot, and you have to work very very quickly to roll or fold the love letters before they cool and become too brittle. The rule is, the thinner and lighter the batter the more skilled you are!

If well made, these cookies will be very fragrant from the coconut milk and sugar and eggs.  A good love letter is fragrant, not too sweet (yet sweet enough) and thin with a nice embossed pattern. Not easy to achieve!

From what I have seen and eaten, there are 2 varieties of love letters - the folded version and the rolled version. The folded version seems to be more popular these days, possibly due to the ease of storage. I however, prefer the rolled version. It reminds me of my childhood and although it gets everywhere, I think it more fun to eat. Its hard to find these days though.

For some reason, homemade kuih kapit always seems to be stored or sold in Milo tins. So during this time of year with Chinese New Year just around the corner, seeing someone carrying a few Milo tins does not mean they love Milo that much, it simply means they are carrying Love Letters galore!

Now, where do I find some good love letters around town?