FOOD NEWS
Onde-Onde Is The Sweet Rice Cake With A Mushy Sugar Center
BY NIKITA EPHANOV
Malaysia’s various desserts, known as kuih, come in all shapes and sizes. One particular stand out is Onde-Onde, small balls of dough with a sweet sugary filling.
Onde-Onde is made of glutinous rice flour infused with juice from the green pandan plant, then filled with gula melaka, a type of palm sugar, and covered with coconut.
The rice flour is mixed with pandan juice to form a dough that is kneaded until smooth, then shaped into flat circles. Palm sugar is then spooned into the center of each circle.
Finally, each disc is rolled into balls, boiled until they float to the top of the water, then coated in coconut. With one bite, the gooey interior bursts out of the chewy dough.
Variations may include tapioca flour, coconut milk, sweet potato, or butterfly pea extract. In Indonesia, the term Onde-Onde also applies to other sticky ball-shaped desserts.
Indonesian variations may include sweet potato starch dough with green bean, coconut milk, and vanilla filling, finished with a sesame seed coating.
Malaysian Kuih can be found in restaurants, food carts, and shops, but the best are found in casual household environments, where the recipes are sure to be family secrets.