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Introduction

In the old kingdom of Siam, the annual ceremony and celebration to mark the beginning and the end of crop seasons would not be complete without simple desserts made of flour, palm sugar and coconut milk. Kayasad, puffed rice with coconut syrup, was one such special dessert.

Sweets and desserts were not daily items for the majority of traditional Thai households. Sweet offerings were reserved for special occasions, such as a wedding or funeral, and often were a part of the donation made to Buddhist monks on weekends and holy days. Thai farmers made sweets and desserts with homegrown fruits in various flavors and textures for these occasions, when they are consumed eagerly, making up for the lack of daily sweets. The luxury of sweet treats on a daily basis was confined to the royalty and aristocracy. The royal kitchen was therefore the traditional center for Thai dessert development.

Thai desserts in the olden days were made of fruits, rice flour, palm sugar and coconut milk. Increasing foreign trade during the modern era brought an influx of cultural exchanges which had an impact on traditional Thai sweets and desserts through the assimilation of new ingredients and techniques. First came the Portuguese influence through the use of eggs in popular desserts such as the Thai custard sunkaya, and egg yolk in hot syrup thong yood, thong yip and foi thong. Later, Dutch, French and English influences followed suit in the form of cakes, tarts and cream caramel.

Coconut can be considered to be the guiding spirit of Thai desserts, providing the creamy and buttery flavor before dairy products were introduced. In 1856, Dona Marie Gemard de Pina, a Portuguese, successfully used coconut cream and coconut milk in place of dairy cream and milk in baking cakes. She was hired to hold a high position in the royal court of King Narai of Ayutthaya, and ran a cooking school to teach the Thais the use of coconut cream and milk. The coconut tree also lends a unique sweet flavor in its by-product, palm sugar. Made from the sweet sap of coconut flowers, palm sugar is indispensable in Thai desserts.

Today, Thai desserts are mainly based on rice flour, glutinous rice, coconut milk, palm sugar, jasmine or pandanus extract, agar-agar and local fruits. The use of jasmine or pandanus essence in Thai desserts provide the authentic Thai fragrance that distinguishes them from other cakes and desserts.

The recipes in this book have been modified for all levels of skills to suit home cooking—using easy to find ingredients but taking care to maintain the authentic and unique tastes of Thai desserts and cakes.