Langka Bars!

Being at home means I get to do some baking again. When I saw some jackfruit just sitting in the fridge and no one wanted to eat them, I decided its high time to do some experimenting in the kitchen again. 

I wanted to make Langka bars(if you're reading this outside the Philippines, Langka is vernacular for Jackfruit) but I couldn't find a recipe anywhere. I looked on the internet, some of our cookbooks, nothing. And so an experiment Im going to do! 

This recipe is really, really easy. Technical difficulty: caveman. Trust me, I made it myself.

Here's what you'll need:

250g fresh jackfruit, pitted and washed

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Notice that I divided the ingredients into three parts? That's because there are three major steps in making these bars: caramelizing the jackfruit, preparing the crust and the batter itself.

First, the star of the show. Le jacquier! Okay, that's just jackfruit in French. Trying to make it sound a bit more sophisticated. Ha-ha! If you're preparing the jackfruit yourself, try wearing disposable plastic gloves, the sap is really sticky and quite tricky to remove. 

Make sure they're pitted and washed thoroughly!

In a heavy saucepan on medium heat, mix the brown sugar and water then bring to a boil. When the syrup is starting to thicken, thrown the jackfruit in. Remember to keep on stirring to avoid the Langka sticking on the bottom of the pan. Do this for around 12-15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, this is what you'll get! Yummy caramelized Langka! You can also use this for Halo-halo or just eat them straight up! This yields around 3/4 cup of cooked jackfruit. Set this aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix the flour and sugar together. When making crusts and bases, most recipes and chefs call for chilled butter. I like mine at room temperature. It makes the crust more solid but still soft. So with your bare hands, cut the butter into the flour mixture until you get this crumbly consistency. You'll get something like this: 

In a 9-inch square pan lined with butter, press the crust mixture into the pan evenly. Bake this at 350F for around 10-15 mins or until it comes out golden brown. Place in a rack and cool.

In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla using a rubber spatula. Add all the remaining dry ingredients and stir until batter is free from lumps. Before adding the caramelized jackfruit, drain them from the syrup and chop into small pieces. Fold in the jackfruit. Pour batter on top of the crust and bake at 350F.

This is what you'll get after 20 minutes of baking! Here I used two loaf pans because I couldn't find our square pans! Remember to let them cool first before removing from the pan. 

Slice them into desired sizes and dust with powdered sugar if you want. ;) I like mine served a bit chilled. Enjoy!

Tell me how yours go and share a photo, too! Happy baking! 

-A