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Onde-onde Recipe
Onde-onde is one of the traditional kuih in Malaysia; they are one of my favorites.
Kuih is term for Malaysian sweet cakes or pastries.
This onde-onde recipe was contributed by Sea Salt with Food, an amazing food blog with many amazing recipes.
What Is Onde-onde?
These cute little onde-onde–also spelled as ondeh-obdeh–are infused with pandan (screwpine leaf) juice and filled with “Gula Melaka” or palm sugar.
The dough is made from sweet potato or glutinous rice flour.
After cooking, they are rolled with grated coconut. The palm sugar is literally bursting in your mouth when you take a bite.
They are very popular in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In Indonesia, they are called klepon.
How to Make Onde-onde?
It’s very easy to make this sweet treat.
First, make the dough with glutinous rice flour and pandan juice.
Next, fill the dough with chopped Gula Melaka and make them into dough balls.
Boil and cook the dough balls until they float to the top. Roll the balls with steamed grated coconut before serving.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 273 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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Onde-onde
Ingredients
- 250 g glutinous rice flour
- 200 ml Pandan juice
- 100 g grated coconut
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 150 g Gula Melaka or palm sugar, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour with Pandan juice and knead lightly. Pinch a small piece of the dough (about 40 g/2 oz.) and drop it into boiling water.
- When the dough rises up the surface, remove it with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water. Mix it back into the main dough and knead well to form a smooth dough. Cover the dough and set aside for about 15 minutes.
- Mix the grated coconut with a pinch of salt and steam for about 2 - 3 minutes and let it cool completely.
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Pinch a small piece of dough (about 15 g each) and flatten lightly. Fill the center of the dough with Gula Melaka or palm sugar. Roll it in your palms to form a smooth ball. Repeat the same until all ingredients are used up.
- Cook the onde-onde balls in boiling water. When they float to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water. Coat the onde-onde with grated coconut and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
As a Malaysian, I wondered if onde is a Malay word. It is not. So thought about possible corruption of foreigners lingo who traded at Malacca in old times: Arabs, Persian, Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch, English. I started with translations of fruit, ball, round. The best result is Dutch for round which is ronde (rorn~day) that somewhat rhymes with onde (orn~day). So onde-onde (round-round) is possibly a glamorous albeit corrupt Dutch term by Nyonyas for describing these round deserts. Malay pluralizes anything by repeating it. So onde- onde is plural version of onde. Unsurprising since one onde is never enough.
But the Indonesian term klepon is Javanese for ovary. Immature chicken or duck eggs in the ovary are roundish. So possibly a term associated with fertility. So serving klepon is less appealing than serving onde-onde or buah Melaka (Malaccan fruit) to ones guest.
Hi Bee,
Can you recommend some of the gula melaka brand please?
No brand I can recommend. I just buy the higher quality ones (more expensive).
Hello,
Can these be made the day before, then boiled the next day?
I don’t recommend.
Hi, how do I store these and for how long? Thank you.
They don’t keep very long on room temperature. Better serve and eat all up in a few hours, unless they are kept in the fridge.
Hi, can I use pandan extract instead of pandan juice as I can’t get pandan leaves here. If I can use pandan extract, what is the measurement for it? Thank you
I am sorry but I am not too sure. I never use pandan extract.
Yes you can use pandan extract. I subbed it in when I made this recipe. Just mix it in to taste/colour with the water and add to the rice flour.
Hello, is it needed to steam the grated coconut? What is the purpose of steaming it?
Yes, it will be great if you steam it, so they are moist and juicier.