How To Make Classic Ondeh Ondeh Like A Pro
A fun group project.
We’ve shared our recipe for the visually stunning Butterfly Pea Flower Ondeh Ondeh With Durian & Gula Melaka. Now, it’s time to go back to the basics, with this simpler classic Ondeh Ondeh that oozes liquid gula melaka with every bite of its chewy pandan-infused dough.
Six ingredients in this
The recipe is pretty straightforward: all you need are six ingredients, the most tedious step probably being the making of pandan juice. But that’s easily fixed if you break up the work — the juice can be made and chilled up to three days ahead.
As always, use good gula melaka
For ondeh ondeh that’s not eye-wateringly sweet but still flavourful, we like to chop up chunks of Singlong Gula Melaka from supermarkets like Cold Storage or NTUC FairPrice.
Classic Ondeh Ondeh
Makes about 30 balls
INGREDIENTS:
200ml pandan juice*
250g glutinous rice flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tiny drop pandan essence
100g grated coconut
a pinch of sea salt
150g gula Melaka, finely chopped
METHOD
1. Warm the pandan juice in a saucepan till it just starts to come to a boil. Remove from the heat.
2. In a large bowl, combine glutinous rice flour with warm pandan juice and pandan essence. Stir till the flour and liquid start to come together, and then knead till it forms a smooth dough.
3. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil.
4. Pinch a small piece of dough (about 30g) and drop into the boiling water. When the dough rises to the surface, remove it with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water. Turn off the heat.
5. Knead this dough back into the dough in the bowl until smoothly incorporated. This step helps to keep the dough elastic and resilient.
6. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and set aside for about 15 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, place the grated coconut and salt into a heat-proof bowl and steam for 8 minutes. Remove from the steamer and allow to cool completely.
8. Dust a tray or work surface with glutinous rice flour.
9. Pinch off 15g of dough and work it between your palms to form a ball. Dust your fingers with a bit of glutinous rice flour if you find the dough sticking to your hands.
10. Make an indentation in the ball of dough with your thumb and continue pinching the dough with your thumb and forefinger to form a “cup”. The resulting piece of dough should measure about 7cm in diameter and 3mm thick.
11. Place a teaspoon of finely chopped gula Melaka in the centre of the dough and gently pinch the seams of the dough to seal. Roll gently between your palms to form a smooth ball. You may find that the area around the seams are thicker with dough. Carefully pinch off excess dough if need be and continue rolling it into a ball.
12. Place the filled ball of dough onto the floured surface and repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.
13. Bring the saucepan of water to a boil again. Gently lower a few balls into the boiling water. Don’t overcrowd the saucepan. Stir the water gently with a spoon so that the balls don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
14. Let the balls cook gently until they float to the top. Allow them to cook for 2 minutes longer, then remove with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.
15. Place the balls on the tray of grated coconut, toss them lightly to coat completely and serve within four hours.
*To make pandan juice, cut 30 pandan leaves into 2cm pieces and place in a blender with 250ml water. Blitz for about 1 min, then strain the pandan pulp through a muslin cloth or fine strainer. If using a strainer, use the back of a spoon to press down on the pandan pulp to get every last drop of juice. Discard pulp and use the juice accordingly. Can be made three days ahead and stored in the fridge, covered.
PHOTOS: ALVIN TEO
