Hainanese Kaya

A staple in any coffee shop, to be served on toast or steamed bread with thin slabs of butter. Tinted a lustrous brown with caramelised sugar and rendered smooth by constant stirring, this kaya is sweeter and softer than the more egg-rich Nyonya kaya from which it probably descends; Hainanese cooks may have learnt, and subsequently adapted, the recipe from Peranakan households in which they worked. The hint of salt is important for balancing out the kaya’s sweetness.