Ondeh Ondeh – traditional Kueh Recipe from Malaysia (Step-by-Step for Dummies 101)

In celebration of Malaysia’s Merdeka Day (Day of Independence in which Peninsular Malaysia gained independence from British colonial rule and became Malaysia back in 1957), I decided to make ondeh ondeh. These are one of the traditional kueh desserts from Malaysia and are SO delicious. Kueh simply refers to bite-sized snacks/cakes/pastries – think bibingka for the Philippines. I love ondeh ondeh, as much as I love kueh lapis <3

Luckily, Singapore Food Festival was hosting a free live masterclass with Chef Jeremy Nguee and Claire Ariela Shen from Mrs Kueh and Rainbow Lapis respectively. (OK, so maybe what I’ll be sharing is a Singaporean recipe, but the end outcome is the same – delicious ondeh-ondeh!) Read on for a step-by-step recipe on how exactly to make these delicious desserts!

 

DELECTABLE DESSERT FOR THE DAY: ONDEH-ONDEH

DIFFICULTY: Easy (fun family activity you can do with kids!)

SERVING SIZE: Around 40 pcs of ondeh ondeh

PREPARATION TIME: 1 hour

 

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients for Ondeh Ondeh

• 100g Sweet Potato (w/o skin): If you’re purchasing it from the market, buy 150g-200g as the skin is typically 1/3 of the sweet potato weight
• 300g glutinous rice flour
• 20g tapioca flour (or tapioca starch, in my case)
• 1L pandan juice (equivalent to 1L water + 10 pandan leaves, boiled)
• 300ml Water
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Coconut Oil

Ingredients for filling and coating

• 150g Gula Melaka, shaved (I used brown sugar as a substitute)
• 200g shredded coconut
• Salt

 

PROCEDURE:

STEP 1: Prepare the Ondeh Ondeh Dough

• Peel off the sweet potato skin. You can use a peeler or a knife for this. If you find any imperfections, make sure to take these out as well. Wash the remaining sweet potato

• Slice up 100g of sweet potato. The thinner the slices, the easier it will be to mash post-steaming. After slicing them up, let it steam for 10-15 minutes to soften. Steam allows you to retain the nutrients of the sweet potato. Alternatively, if you’re in a hurry, you can decide to boil it instead – but the nutrients would leach to the water if you do this

• Mash the sweet potato. Make sure no small lumps remain because this will form part of your dough

• Mix the mashed sweet potato with the following: 300g glutinous rice flour (makes it chewy), 20g tapioca flour (makes it springy and serves to combine everything together), 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt.

• Once you’ve mixed a bit, gradually pour 300ml of water into the mixture and continue kneading the dough until you get the consistency and texture that you want. The goal texture is the dough should feel like your earlobe
• Once the dough reaches the desired consistency, pour 1 tbsp of coconut oil into the mixture and knead again

• Afterwards, cover and let it rest for 30mins. Better yet, leave it in the refrigerator overnight. This gives dough time to soften and absorb all the moisture

STEP 2: Create the Ondeh Ondeh

• Boil a pot of water. Knot the pandan leaves then place into the water. Cover the pot and leave it to boil for 10-15mins. Make sure your pan is big enough for your ondeh ondeh to not stick to each other when you cook them inside

• Take out the dough from the refrigerator. Grab a clump of dough (roughly 10-15g) and roll the dough into a ball

• From here, I generally crack open the ball, then use a end of a spoon to create a hole inside. I place brown sugar (or shaved gula melaka) into the hole, pinch to close then roll it again to seal all the cracks. Make sure there are no cracks left or the sugar will seep out as you cook it.

• Remove pandan leaves from the pot of water. The water is now pandan juice and should smell very fragrant. Put oil so ondeh ondeh won’t stick to each other when you slowly pour them in

• After pouring in the ondeh ondeh, stir around carefully to create a vortex so they don’t stick to the bottom. Do NOT crowd or they may burst.
• Put a lid on the pan and let boil for 5 minutes. Afterwards, take off the lid. The ondeh ondeh should have risen to the surface at this point. Leave boiling for another 2 minutes to make sure it’s cooked and the sugar has melted

• Gently lift the ondeh ondeh and drain off excess water

• Place in grated coconut and let it roll around to pick up the coconut across its entire surface. I didn’t have grated coconut at home so I had to skip this step. Instead, I washed the ondeh ondeh under cool water to make sure they didn’t stick to each other
• Let cool for 10 minutes, and it’s now ready to serve

STEP 3: Bon Appetit!