Kuih or Malaysian local cakes are a delightful breakfast and teatime favourites in Malaysia. This Malaysian dessert differs from Western dessert. In the West, the dessert is more towards cakes and biscuits while in Malaysia, the desserts can be soft, sweet, spicy, or creamy.
There are various types and recipes of local cakes, which originated mainly from the Malay and Nyonya culture. Many of the local cakes are either steamed, boiled or grilled and made from local ingredients. Some of the local ingredients include tapioca flour, rice flour, glutinous flour, cornflour, Malacca sugar, wheat flour, and natural flavours such as pandan leaves or bunga telang (butterfly pea flower).
Some of the local favourite kuih are Kuih Lapis (Steamed Layer Cake), Kuih Lompang (Mini Tapioca Flour Pancake), Kuih Sagu (Sago Cake), Kuih Keria (Sweet Potato Doughnut), Pisang Goreng (Banana Fritters), and Onde-onde (Glutinous Rice Balls with Palm Sugar Filling). These are just a few of the many local cakes in Malaysia.
One of the favourites and easy to make is onde-onde or Buah Melaka. It is made using glutinous rice flour, giving it a chewy texture that goes amazingly well with palm sugar filling. With grated coconut as a topping, onde-onde is a bite-sized kuih, soft on the outside and gooey on the inside. The sweetness of palm sugar explodes in your mouth, which makes it hard to resist and loved by many.
Ingredients:
- 250g glutinous rice flour
- ½ tbs wheat flour
- 7 pandan leaves (or 3 tbsp Pandan Extract)
- 300ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- Palm sugar/ Gula Melaka (cut into small pieces)
- Grated coconut
Directions:
- Mix glutinous rice flour, wheat flour and salt in a bowl
- Cut the pandan leaves into small sizes, blend with water and drain the pandan leaf water.
- Pour the pandan leaf water gradually into the flour mixture and mix to form a soft dough.
- Shape the dough into small balls about 2 cm in diameter, then flattened each ball and add the small pieces of palm sugar in the middle. Bring the side together to form the ball again and make sure not to leave any gaps where sugar may flow out,
- Boil some water in a pan. After the water boiling, drop about 5 to 6 balls at the time into it and wait for it to cook. Once the balls start floating to the surface of the water, remove them with a sieve and let it be for one minute.
- Mix the balls with grated coconut and its ready to be served.