Recipe | Onde-Onde (Nyonya Dessert)

About 40 children made these Nyonya dessert last Saturday. I made and tasted some before they all came (ran) into the room. Inside, these small little balls, was stuffed with gula melaka (palm sugar) and it was supposed to burst in your mouth when you take a bite. Sweet and delicious. Mine did! But I am not sure if those done by the children burst in the mouth or not. (Note: no QC done as all the excited tiny hands just kept coming back for more dough to roll, flatten and roll 😀 )

The children had a good time rolling and stuffing the sugar into the dough made from sweet potato paste with glutinous rice flour. 🙂

The recipe is simple, really simple. I, first, learnt to make these from a very talented helper 2 years ago when she gave a lesson to a group of teens and I jotted down the steps 🙂

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Ingredients:

• Sweet potatoes – 500g
• Glutinous rice flour – 1 packet
• Grated coconut – 1 packet (or you can buy those fresh grated coconut from market)
• Gula melaka – 1 big piece from a pack of 4 (or use all); finely chopped
• Pandan leaves – Steam 10 pandan leaves and blend with 200ml of water to make pandan juice

Steps:

1. Steam sweet potatoes and grated coconut (separately) for about 20 minutes.
2. Finely chopped the gula Melaka.
3. Mashed the sweet potatoes and blend it to make into a smooth paste. Add warm water as you blend if it is too dry.
4. For green ball:
   1. Mix glutinous rice flour with pandan juice only (or with white skin sweet potatoes) and continue with step 6.
5. For other colored sweet potatoes:
   1. Mix the glutinous rice flour with the sweet potatoes paste and continue with step 6.
6. Add warm water if too dry.
7. Knead the dough till it’s like bread dough, not too sticky and has a nice smooth texture.
8. Pinch a small piece of dough, and use your thumb to press into the center of the dough to make a small pit.
9. Add in gula melaka.
10. Roll it on your palm to make a smooth ball.
11. Bring water to boil and put in the glutinous rice balls.
12. Remove them when they float to the surface.
13. Shake off excessive water and coat them (by rolling) in the grated coconut. Serve immediately.

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Bon appetit ! 🙂