Homemade Puto Seko made with just 3 ingredients. You only need cornstarch, butter and condensed milk to make this classic Filipino cookie.
What Is Puto Seko?
Traditionally it's a cookie made with cornstarch, rice flour, egg, butter and sugar. It's very similar to an Uraro cookie. The main difference is that Puto Seko is made with cornstarch and Uraro is made with arrowroot flour.
The origins of the name is also interesting. Puto comes from the Tamil word Puttu. Puttu in Tamil means portioned and a traditional Puttu is made with a combination of rice and coconut and steamed. Kinda similar to a traditional Filipino Puto.
Seko comes from the Spanish word seco, which means dry. So the full translation of Puto Seko is dry portioned rice cookie. But don't let that deter you from making it. The cornstarch makes it melt in your mouth and this version is super easy too.
What Ingredients do you need to make Puto Seko?
- Cornstarch
- Softened Butter
- Condensed Milk
As you can see I left out the rice flour. Technically it has no rice in it, but still so good and magical. My condensed milk is green, because it is Pandan flavored. You can use regular condensed milk or if you go to an Filipino grocery store they have many flavors of condensed milk. Use any!
Let's Make It!
Pre-heat your oven to 325F. A medium heat, as you don't really want to bake or brown the Puto Seko. Just dry it out.
Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until a nice firm yet soft dough appears. About a minute and a half to 2 minutes.
You can do this all by hand if you don't have a food processor it will take probably about 10 minutes of manual mixing and then needing by hand to get the same texture. It should feel like play dough.
Next line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a cooking mold scoop out the dough and place on the prepared baking sheet.
I used a polvoron mold, but you can use any press out cookie mold. Even a small moon cake mold would be perfect.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and prop open the oven door with a wooden spoon. Leave the Puto Seko inside to cool down and dry out.
Once the oven is fully cool take out of the oven .
The cookies should be hard to the touch and when you tap them they sound hallow.
How to Store the Puto Seko
I found that if I left them out in a cake dome on the counter, it got softer after a day or two. To refresh the crunch, just lightly toast in the oven for 5 minutes at 250F. Or if you have a toaster oven set it to a light toast and then leave in the oven.
If there are just too many Puto Seko for you to eat you can store them in an air tight freezer container for up to 3 months.
Add more cornstarch a tablespoon at a time and keep mixing until it starts forming a dough.
Yes! I would remove ¼ cup of ¼ cup of cornstarch and replace it with ¼ cup of rice flour. Adjust the condensed milk if needed.
My condensed milk is green, because it is Pandan flavored. You can use regular condensed milk or if you go to an Filipino grocery store they have many flavors of condensed milk. Use any!
You can use Poltroon Molds that are found at Filipino Grocery Stores or Moon cake molds. Just make sure it's a cookie mold that you can press out with a spring mechanism.
No. It just needs to be softened butter, not melted to get the perfect consistency. Or else the dough will be too oily to handle.
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Equipment
- Baking Pan
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Cornstarch
- ¼ Cup Softened Butter
- ⅓ Cup Condensed Milk
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 325F. A medium heat, as you don’t really want to bake or brown the Puto Seko. Just dry it out.Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until a nice firm yet soft dough appears. About a minute and a half to 2 minutes.
- You can do this all by hand if you don’t have a food processor it will take probably about 10 minutes of manual mixing and then needing by hand to get the same texture. It should feel like play dough.
- Next line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a cooking mold scoop out the dough and place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and prop open the oven door with a wooden spoon. Leave the Puto Seko inside to cool down and dry out.Once the oven is fully cool take out of the oven .
- The cookies should be hard to the touch and when you tap them they sound hallow.
Notes
Jenny says
Hi. Can I use corn flour instead? Cannot find cornstarch here in Oman.
Rezel Kealoha says
Hi Jenny, it depends on what the flour looks like. I know in some countries it can be the same as cornstarch if it is white and super fine. But if it's yellow and course - it's not the same.
Alternatively you can use arrowroot flour to get the same melty texture.