Onde-Onde
I shared a dessert called Onde-Onde in the Gilmore Park Community Kitchen. We had a sweet treat day as we have two desserts on the same day. Onde-Onde is a popular street food in South East Asia.
Onde-Onde is very similar to the various Chinese Tang Yuan like Glutinous Rice Ball with Sesame Peanuts Filings, Hong Kong style Tang Yuan and Taiwanese Tang Yuan. The only difference is those Tang Yuan are served in a sweet syrupy soup while Onde-Onde is served dry with shredded coconut coating. It is more like a finger food.
This Onde-Onde recipe is flavoured with pandan leaves. Pandan leaves (also known as screwpine leaves) are used commonly in the South East Asia in making desserts. You can find pandan leaves in the frozen section of some Filipino groceries stores here and even fresh ones from Vancouver Chinatown.
Pandan leaf is used to impart it’s fragrance into the dessert. It is normally discarded after the dish is made like this Sweet Potato Soup. Pandan leaves are also used as a natural green food coloring.
Ingredients
- 10 pandan leaves
- 5 tablespoons water
- few drops of green coloring (optional)
- 400g glutinous rice flour
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of water (more if needed)
Filling:
- 100g gula melaka (plam sugar)
Coating:
- 150g grated coconut
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
 Clean and pound or blend pandan leaves with some water. |
 Place the blended pandan leaves in a strainer and squeeze out the pure green pandan juice. If colour is not sufficiently green, add a few drops of green coloring). Set aside. |
 Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. |
 Add pandan juice and just enough water to mix into a dough. |
 Take about 50g of the dough, flatten. |
 Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Drop the 50g disc into the boiling water. |
 When it floats, remove and combine with the rest of the dough. Knead well until dough turns smooth.This mixture of cooked and raw dough is meant to stabilize the dough. According to Heidi, this makes the dough more chewier. |
 Pinch out the dough to about the size of a small lime or marble and flatten it. Add a small teaspoon of filling in the centre. Cover up and roll the dough into a ball. |
 Repeat process until all the dough is used up. |
 Bring water to a boil in a large pot. When water boils, gently drip in the small balls of Onde-Onde, one at a time. Stir the water to create a gentle currant so that the ball will not stick to the bottom of the pot. |
 Wait until the balls float to the surface, then scoop out with a perforated ladle. |
 Drop them into a pot of icy cold water. This process will also helps the glutinous rice ball to be more chewier. |
 Scoop out with a perforated ladle into a strainer and drain the excess water. |
 In a large plate, mix together grated coconut and salt. Roll the cooked Onde-Onde in grated coconut. |
 This recipe makes about 30 Onde-Onde. The recipe is adapted from Amy Beh at Home. |
Looks amazing! I have not had this in over a decade and it looks like a lot of work so kudos to you!
This looks so yummy!
Where can you get gula melaka in vancouver??
Hi Shelley, you can find palm sugar in many Chinese groceries stores in Richmond. I’m not sure about Vancouver as I dont shop in Vancouver but I’m sure you can get it in Chinatown.
Hello,
do you know the name of palm sugar in chinese? I tried finding gula melaka in T&T (downtown) but was not successful.
Hi Michelle, I believe it’s called ‘yeh tong’ in Cantonese. I know there is this Singapore store (cant recall it’s name) which is famous for it’s fish ball (across Richmond public market) does carry authentic gula melaka.
Hi Ben & Suanne,
i think what you called “onde-onde” here, in Indonesia (Java for sure) is called “klepon” while “Onde-onde” is another different kind of street food.
Onde-onde in Indonesia is coated with sesame grains and filled with red bean paste. that’s what i know :)
anyway, your site is so cool! i like the photos, i like the way you review the menus, i just love it so much :)
regards.
yummy!yummy! my favourite dessert ;-)
Hi there! Thank you for your pictures!!! Very good! I was wondering why one recipe called for the small portion of cooked dough to be placed back into “raw” dough – and they didn’t have the explanation like yours.
Thanks again! My biggest problem is wrapping the sugar in the dough without breaking when I roll them into a ball again – is there a specific technique?
Hi FeR, I think the trick to wrapping the sugar in the dough without breaking is the sugar must be fine and do not fill too much and the dough must not be too thin.
It looks so great! Can I have one?