Indonesian & Malaysian desserts
Indonesian and Malaysian desserts — the small cakes called kue in Indonesia and kuih in Malaysia and Singapore — share one larder of coconut, palm sugar, rice flour and pandan. This guide gathers every recipe from that world on DessertCat, from the many-layered kue lapis to the palm-sugar-filled klepon.
All 22 Indonesian & Malaysian desserts
ii. The kue and kuih tradition
Across the Malay world, sweets are less an after-dinner course than an all-day snack: bought from market stalls in the morning, eaten with coffee or tea in the afternoon, and laid out in quantity when guests arrive. The collection covers Indonesia and its close neighbours — several recipes, such as ais kacang, bubur cha cha, kuih bangkit and sago gula melaka, are better known as Malaysian, Singaporean or Nyonya (Peranakan) dishes, and we say so on each page.
Key ingredients
The essentials are coconut (as milk, cream and grated flesh), palm sugar (gula jawa in Java, gula Melaka in Malaysia), rice flour and glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch and mung beans. Pandan leaf gives both a grassy-vanilla perfume and the familiar green colour; banana leaf is used to wrap, line and steam.
Techniques
Most kue are steamed rather than baked. Thin layers of coloured batter are steamed one at a time for kue lapis; a glutinous rice base is topped with pandan custard for seri muka; rice flour is packed into bamboo tubes for kue putu. Other sweets are cooked in special pans, like the small cast-iron moulds used for serabi and kue cubit, or stirred for hours in a wok, as with the toffee-like dodol.
Regional styles
Javanese sweets lean on palm sugar and grated coconut; Sundanese West Java is known for serabi; Malaysian and Singaporean kuih show strong Peranakan influence, with richer coconut custards and bright colours. Iced desserts — cendol, es teler and ais kacang — are found throughout the region's hawker stalls and street carts.
Occasions
During Ramadan, sweet snacks are sold in the late afternoon for breaking the fast, and Lebaran or Hari Raya brings tins of biscuits and long-cooked sweets such as dodol. Chinese New Year has its own repertoire, including kuih bangkit. Pandan crepes such as dadar gulung are everyday market fare.
iii. Common questions
What is the difference between kue and kuih?
They are the same word in two spellings: kue is Indonesian and kuih (or kueh) is used in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Both describe bite-sized cakes and sweets, usually made from rice flour, glutinous rice, coconut, palm sugar and pandan.
Is dadar gulung a traditional Indonesian food?
Yes. Dadar gulung is a traditional Indonesian kue: thin pandan crepes rolled around grated coconut cooked in palm sugar. Similar rolled pandan crepes are known in Malaysia as kuih ketayap or kuih gulung.
What are the most popular Indonesian desserts?
Well-loved Indonesian sweets include klepon, kue lapis, dadar gulung, serabi, es teler, cendol (es cendol or dawet) and martabak manis. Our kue lapis and klepon pages are good places to start.
What is gula Melaka?
Gula Melaka is Malaysian palm sugar, traditionally made by boiling down the sap of the coconut palm into dark, fudgy blocks. It tastes of caramel with a faintly smoky edge, and it is the syrup poured over sago gula Melaka and cendol.
Are Indonesian and Malaysian desserts gluten-free?
Many are naturally free of wheat because they are made with rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch and coconut; glutinous rice contains no gluten despite its name. Baked cakes and some biscuits do use wheat flour, so check each recipe.