Tibok-tibok / Akay-akay

The Philippines is really rich with culinary delicacies, every province has lot's of "kakanin" as we call it to be proud of.

One of which is tibok-tibok from Pampanga which is like
the akay-akay as they call it in Obando, Bulacan.

I really don't know what differs them... maybe the ingredients or method perhaps.

In Pampanga they use carabao's milk while in Bulacan, coconut cream is used.

It's one of my favorite "kakanin"... so every once in a while, there's always one present at the ancestral house during Sunday lunch.

Last week, I re-created it after my mom took out an old recipe book which I believe belongs to my late grandmother.

The method was different so I prepared it as simple and as easy as I could.

Having no stone "gilingan" to make the "galapong"/"malagkit", I opted for the glutinous rice flour which fairly makes sense.

Bought two coconut meat and squeezed every bit of cream I could using the potato riser to get the authentic taste of the “gata” even though the canned ones are very tempting to use (again for convenience).


I soaked and then boiled the red monggo beans and sweetened it after which it was cooled down to be used as the filling.

I really don’t have the exact measurement, so I just made it by feel.


Prepared the “malagkit” filled the center with the monggo beans and made it into round balls.

For the sauce... which to me is the highlight of this "kakanin"... I heated the second squeeze of the coconut cream, added the glutinous rice flour and then the sugar.

Then the mistake occurred... I added in the sauce mixture the "malagkit" filled with beans. Of course, it shattered... as I need to continiously stir the mixture... the red monggo beans were all over it! hahaha (I told my mom what happened and she laughed at me... according to her, I should have boiled or steamed it separately)

So, the show must go on... I finished it up by adding last the first squeeze of the coconut cream and adjusted the taste by adding some more sugar and for no reason, a pinch of salt.

Finally, I finished it off at the oven to gratinate it.

And the end result?

It was by far, exceptionally good! hahaha

I was able to reproduced the taste and texture of the Akay-akay that I grew up loving.


* Up next: standardized the quantity of the ingredients.

:-)