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If you watched my episode of House Hunters International: Family Reunion in Penang and wondered about the green thing I was making in the show, it’s Kuih Dadar. Read on…
Nyonya kuih—or Nyonya sweet cakes—is a big part of Nyonya cuisine. In fact, Nyonya kuih is iconic, so much so that it outshines savory dishes.
Ask anyone around and it’s likely that they have had some sort of Nyonya kuih, but may not have sampled other Nyonya dishes. Many Nyonya kuih are simply adaptations of Malay kuih-muih, or Malay version of sweet cakes and desserts.
Kuih dadar or kuih tayap is a rolled crepe flavored with pandan juice and filled with grated coconut steeped in gula melaka or Malaysian palm sugar. Pandan leaf is the core ingredient of kuih dadar/kuih tayap.
The green exterior of kuih dadar is made of batter colored with natural pandan juice extracted from pandan leaves. Nowadays, many kuih vendors use artificial coloring for convenience purposes, but the end product usually lacks the tempting sweet fragrance of pandan leaves.
Also, the coloring appear somewhat bright or fluorescent green, a sure-fire tell tale sign of artificial coloring…
This kuih dadar/kuih tayap recipe is adapted from Nyonya Flavours: A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine. Making Nyonya kuih is no simple affair but I find kuih dadar to be rather painless to make and the end result is beautiful and gratifying, especially if you have a sweet tooth.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 360 calories per serving.
What to Serve with This Recipe?
There are many types of kuih in Malaysia. If you wish to try making kuih at home, I recommend the following recipes.
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Kuih Dadar (Kuih Tayap)
Ingredients
- Pandan Juice
- 5 pandan leaves (chopped)
- 3-4 tablespoons water
Crepe Batter
- 120 g flour
- 1 egg
- 300 ml coconut milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon pandan juice
Filling
- 90 g Gula Melaka, Malaysian palm sugar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 pandan leaf (knotted)
- 50 ml water
- 1/2 grated coconut (white part only)
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Instructions
- Combine the pandan leaf and water in an electronic blender and blend for a minute. Wrap the pandan in a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and squeeze to extract the juice or strain through a fine sieve. Set aside.
- Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and crack in the egg. Slowly stir in the salted coconut milk and 3 tablespoons pandan juice. Set aside.
- Break up the palm sugar and combine with the sugar, pandan leaf and water in a pot. Cover over a medium flame until sugar dissolves. Strain the syrup and return it to the pot. Add in the grated coconut and corn starch and continue to cook for a few minutes. Dish out into a bowl.
- Heat up a shallow frying pan over a low flame and grease lightly with oil. Pour 2 tablespoons of the batter in the center and swirl the pan to coat it forms a thin crepe of about 13 cm in diameter.
- When the crepe is cooked, transfer it onto a chopping board.
- Place 2 heaped teaspoons of filing on the crepe and roll it up like a spring roll.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
I’ve had kuih before and totally loved it and as said in one of the comments above would love to recreate the taste of it at home instead of having to trek around to look for it. Can you advise though if there is any alternative for egg in this recipe? My husband is lacto vegan and does not have eggs. Please advise.
I would like to ask can i use pandan essence instead? & what is the amount? thx
Love love love! I long for the taste of fresh pandan – very difficult to find here in Canada. My memories of Ipoh biscuits especially those with pandan are forever etched in my memory!
Mmmmm. Love!
The coconut milk used… is that the thick coconut milk or thin coconut milk?
Thick is better.
How many grams are there in 1/2 grated coconut?
How to make the pandan juice? Thanks
how many portion of this recipe?
Can you clarify the word “flour” in this recipe? Is it all purpose flour or rice flour that we Asian like to use the most for our cooking? Which one is it?
All-purpose flour.
Can we use gutinous rice flour?
No.
what is the serving of this recipe?
OMG Bee they are awesome!! i finally found pandan leaves in asian shops but they are frozen, i need to use double the leaves to get the color, but they are green as anything. Crepes are a little thick for my liking but hey something i can adjust next time, overall I am very happy with this, i am not from malaysia but love kuih dadar the first time i had it, now i can recreate that taste at home without trekking to shops hoping they might have some for sale.
yay!