KLEPON (Glutinous Rice Balls with Palm Sugar)

Posted by Lisa on Tuesday, July 16, 2013. Filed under: , , ,
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Klepon  is a traditional rice cake, popular in Indonesia and Malaysia. It is a boiled rice cake made from glutinous rice powder, stuffed with liquid gula jawa (palm sugar), and rolled in grated coconut. Klepon is green because it is flavored with a paste made from the pandan or dracaena plant whose leaves are used widely in South East Asian cooking. In other parts of Indonesia, such as in Sumatra and in neighboring Malaysia, klepon is called as onde-onde.

KLEPON

Ingredients:
200 grams glutinous rice flour
180 ml water
2 drops pandan paste or essence
75 g gula Jawa (palm sugar), finely chopped
1 cup freshly grated coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Place the glutinous rice flour in a mixing bowl and slowly add the water and pandan paste, mixing with your hands. Stop adding water when the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the bowl but doesn't stick to your hands.
Pull off about 1 teaspoon of dough and flatten into a disc. Place about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in the middle. Fold up the edges and seal completely. Roll into a ball about 2 to 3 cm in diameter with the palms of your hands. Place on an oiled plate. Repeat until all the dough or sugar is finished.
Heat a large pot of water until it starts to boil. Prepare a large bowl of cold water. Combine the grated coconut and salt on a plate.
Drop the balls one by one into the boiling water, making sure not to overcrowd the pot. When they float to the surface, let them cook for one more minute.
Remove the balls with a slotted spoon and dunk them in the cold water. When they are cool, remove and drain well before rolling in the coconut-salt mixture. Serve immediately