Klepon

Ingredients

Dough

• 250 gglutinous rice flour
• 2 tbsptapioca flour
• 150 mlpandan water, warm
• a pinch of salt
• green food colouring, optional

Filling

• 150 ggula jawa palm sugar, finely chopped

Coating

• 200 gfresh grated coconut
• ½ tspsalt
• 1pandan leaf

To cook

• water, for boiling

Directions

1. Make pandan water by blending several pandan leaves with water and straining it, or use pandan extract.
2. Fresh pandan gives both the colour and the scent, and bottled essence gives colour and very little else.
3. Steam the grated coconut with the salt and a pandan leaf for 10 minutes, then cool it.
4. Steaming the coconut first is what stops it souring within hours, and it is the step most home recipes leave out.
5. Chop the palm sugar finely rather than using it in chunks.
6. Finely chopped sugar melts evenly into liquid. A single lump melts late, leaves a gap, and the ball collapses.
7. Mix the glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour with the warm pandan water to a soft, pliable dough.
8. Add the water gradually. The dough should feel like soft plasticine, not sticky and not crumbly.
9. Take a small piece, flatten it in your palm, put a teaspoon of chopped palm sugar in the centre, and close it into a smooth ball.
10. Seal it completely and roll it smooth between your palms, checking for cracks.
11. Any crack lets the molten sugar out into the water, and a leaked klepon is an empty one.
12. Bring a wide pot of water to a gentle boil and drop the balls in.
13. Cook them until they float, then give them a further 2 minutes.
14. The float is the signal but it is not the finish, and lifted out the moment they rise they are raw at the centre.
15. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain them briefly, and roll them immediately in the steamed coconut while still wet.
16. Roll them wet. The coconut only sticks to a damp surface, and a dried klepon will not take a coating.
17. Serve at room temperature, on a banana leaf.
18. Eat them whole and in one bite. The palm sugar inside is molten and bitten in half it squirts, which is either the joke or the hazard depending on who is watching.

Technique

• Gula jawa, dark palm sugar, is the whole flavour and white sugar makes something else entirely.
• They are best on the day and go hard by the next.
• The same sweet is called onde-onde in Malaysia and Singapore, which in Indonesia means something quite different.

Substitutions

• Desiccated coconut moistened with a little coconut milk and steamed.
• Dark muscovado in place of palm sugar.

Variations

• Made with sweet potato or pumpkin in the dough.
• Larger, as a single mouthful is the usual size.
• With black glutinous rice flour, which is darker and nuttier.

History

Pandan rice balls filled with liquid palm sugar and rolled in grated coconut, called onde-onde in Malaysia.

Frequently asked questions

What is Klepon?

Klepon is a snack from Indonesia: pandan rice balls that burst with molten palm sugar. Pandan rice balls filled with liquid palm sugar and rolled in grated coconut, called onde-onde in Malaysia.

How long does Klepon take to make?

Klepon takes 40 min of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 25. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Klepon?

Yes, within limits. Desiccated coconut moistened with a little coconut milk and steamed. Dark muscovado in place of palm sugar.

What is the most important thing to get right in Klepon?

Gula jawa, dark palm sugar, is the whole flavour and white sugar makes something else entirely.