Klepon — pandan rice balls with molten palm sugar

i. Origin & history

Klepon comes from Java and is a staple of the kue basah or 'wet cake' category of Indonesian sweets — soft, fresh snacks made from rice flour, coconut and palm sugar and sold each morning at markets and by street vendors. It is just as common at Javanese ceremonies and family gatherings, and every market tray of mixed jajanan pasar includes a pile of green klepon alongside kue putu, lapis and dadar gulung.

The sweet travelled with Javanese migrants around the archipelago and to the Malay peninsula, and the naming then becomes confusing. In Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Sumatra the same green, palm-sugar-filled ball is called onde-onde. In Java and most of Indonesia, however, onde-onde is a completely different snack: a fried glutinous-rice ball covered in sesame seeds and filled with mung-bean paste, of Chinese origin. A Malaysian asking for onde-onde in Jakarta will get the sesame balls.

Klepon is closely tied to palm sugar, or gula Jawa — the dark sugar boiled from coconut or arenga palm sap that Java has produced for centuries. The pairing of palm sugar, pandan and coconut is the core flavour of Javanese and Malay sweets, and klepon presents it in its simplest form.

Klepon also acquired a modern following as a flavour: 'klepon cake', klepon-flavoured drinks and klepon ice cream are now sold across Indonesia, built on the same pandan, palm sugar and coconut combination.

ii. How the palm sugar stays inside

The appeal of klepon is that the sugar melts but does not escape. That depends on the dough. Glutinous-rice flour mixed with warm water and pandan juice forms a soft, putty-like dough that can be stretched thinly around the sugar and sealed without cracking. As the ball boils, the outer starch gelatinises into a sealed, elastic skin, while the heat reaching the centre melts the palm sugar into syrup.

Many cooks add a little ordinary rice flour or tapioca starch to the glutinous flour. Pure glutinous flour gives a very soft, sticky ball that can sag; a small proportion of rice flour or tapioca adds structure and makes the balls hold a neat round shape. Some Indonesian recipes also add a few drops of limewater (air kapur sirih), which firms the dough and makes the skin chewier.

The sugar has to be finely chopped or shaved, and not packed in too large a piece. Small pieces melt fully in the few minutes of boiling; a large lump leaves a hard, grainy centre. The ball must be completely sealed and smoothly rolled — any crack or thin spot lets water in and syrup out, and the ball can burst in the pan.

The dough should be the texture of soft play dough: smooth, not sticky, and not cracking at the edges when pressed flat. Too dry and it splits when wrapped; too wet and it will not hold its shape.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 24 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 8 pandan leaves, cut up
• 200 ml warm water
• 250 g glutinous rice flour
• 25 g rice flour or tapioca starch
• ¼ tsp salt, for the dough
• 120 g palm sugar (gula Jawa or gula Melaka), finely chopped
• 150 g fresh or frozen grated coconut
• ¼ tsp salt, for the coconut
• 1 pandan leaf, for steaming the coconut

The dough must be made with glutinous rice flour (also labelled sweet rice flour or tepung ketan); ordinary rice flour alone will not stretch or seal. Fresh pandan juice gives a soft green and a sweet, grassy aroma — the leaves are sold fresh or frozen at Asian grocers. If using pandan paste, use ½ tsp in plain water. Gula Jawa is the traditional sugar; gula Melaka and Thai palm sugar are equivalent. Use fresh or frozen grated coconut, steamed with salt: the salt is essential, and desiccated coconut is too dry to cling.

iv. Method

1. Mix the grated coconut with the ¼ tsp salt and steam it with a pandan leaf for 10 minutes. Spread out on a plate to cool.
2. Blend the pandan leaves with the warm water and strain through a fine sieve, pressing hard, to get about 180 ml of juice.
3. Mix the glutinous rice flour, rice flour and salt in a bowl. Add the pandan juice gradually, kneading, until the dough is smooth and soft and does not crack when pressed. You may not need all the liquid, or may need a spoonful more water.
4. Pinch off pieces of about 15 g and roll them into balls. Flatten each in your palm, make a small dip and fill with ½ tsp of chopped palm sugar.
5. Close the dough over the sugar, pinch to seal, and roll between your palms into a smooth ball with no cracks.
6. Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil. Add the balls in batches. When they float, about 3–4 minutes, cook for a further 1–2 minutes so the sugar fully melts.
7. Lift out with a slotted spoon, drain for a few seconds and roll at once in the coconut until coated. Serve warm or at room temperature.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Chop the palm sugar finely. Coarse lumps do not melt in the short cooking time and leave a gritty centre.
• Seal and roll the balls thoroughly. Any crack lets the syrup leak, leaving the ball hollow and the water brown.
• Keep the dough covered. Glutinous dough dries quickly and cracks; keep it under a damp cloth while you shape.
• Boil a minute beyond floating. Floating means the outside is cooked; the extra time melts the sugar.
• Steam and salt the coconut. Steaming keeps fresh coconut from souring and the salt balances the sweet centre.
• Warn guests to eat them whole. Bitten in half, a klepon squirts hot syrup — eaten whole, it bursts in the mouth as intended.

vi. Variations

Many Javanese cooks colour the dough with suji leaves as well as pandan for a deeper green. Klepon ubi mixes mashed sweet potato into the dough, giving orange or purple balls, and klepon labu uses pumpkin. Some cooks add a little butterfly-pea for blue klepon. Modern Indonesian cafés sell klepon cake, a pandan sponge with palm-sugar syrup and coconut, and klepon-flavoured drinks.

The Malaysian onde-onde is the same sweet under another name; the Indonesian onde-onde is the fried sesame ball. Similar filled rice balls appear across Asia: the Chinese tangyuan in syrup, the Filipino bilo-bilo, and the Japanese daifuku. For the same flavours in a different form, see kue putu and dadar gulung.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve klepon in small piles on banana leaves or a plate, as an afternoon snack with tea or coffee or as part of a tray of market sweets. They are best eaten within a few hours, while the skin is soft and the centre still syrupy.

Klepon do not keep well. After a day the skin hardens and the coconut can sour; do not refrigerate them, as the cold hardens the dough. Uncooked filled balls can be frozen on a tray and then bagged for up to a month; boil them straight from frozen, adding 1–2 minutes, and roll in freshly steamed coconut.

ix. More from Indonesian & Malaysian

• Kue Putu — steamed bamboo cakes
• Dadar Gulung — pandan crêpes with coconut
• Onde-Onde — sesame rice balls
• Cendol — pandan jelly in coconut milk
• Tangyuan — Chinese filled rice balls
• Daifuku — Japanese mochi with bean paste