Onde-onde (Stuffed Glutinous Rice Balls)

I do believe that onde-onde first originated from Indonesia but it had been adopted by both the Malay and Peranakan cultures. I remembered when young my mother would buy kuih-kuih (local Malay cakes/desserts)for us kids to eat during tea times. And more often than not, onde-onde would be included. I love eating these chewy little balls of rice flour as the centers would contain palm sugar. I'll pop the whole ball into my mouth and bite down into them in anticipation of the palm sugar squirting out into my mouth. It was such a "rush" ... and believe it or not, I still do it now!




This is my first time making these and I found that it's really simple to do so. It's just a bit time consuming waiting to cook each rice ball. I figured out that I could get a whole lot of onde-onde from Four Singapore Dollars (S$4) if I made it myself as compared to buying S$4 worth of onde-onde from shops which would only give me 6 to 8 pieces maximum.





Onde-onde (Stuffed Glutinous Rice Balls)
(Makes about 20 balls)

Ingredients:

200g (1 3/4 cups) glutinous rice flour
150ml (2/3 cup) pandan juice *
3 Tbsp and 1 tsp water
200g (1 1/3 cup) palm sugar, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fine salt
75g (3/4 cup) grated young coconut

Pandan Juice *
(Makes 1/2 cup)

6 - 8 large pandan (pandanus) leaves
150ml (2/3 cup) water

Rinse pandan leaves and using a kitchen scissor or a sharp knife, cut leaves into 2cm (3/4") length. Place leaves and water in a chopper or blender and process until pulveried. Pour through a fine strainer and discard solids. Measure out the required amount of juice for this recipe.

Method:

1) Combine the glutinous rice flour, pandan juice and water together in a medium-sized bowl, kneading well to form a smooth, pliable dough. Cover dough with a damp towel to prevent it drying out.

2) Bring a pan of water to the boil, then lower heat so that the water simmers gently. Pinch out a ball of dough about the sixe of a lime, flatten it into a disk and drop it into the simmering water. When the disc is cooked and rises to the surface, lift it out with a slotted spoon, shake off any excess water and knead the cooked dough evenly back into the main ball of dough.

3) Mix salt and grated coconut together and place on a plate.

4) Pinch off small balls of dough the size of calamansi limes (about 20g each) and roll in your palms to form smooth balls. Carefully make a small well in the centre of the dough andfill with chopped palm sugar. Pinch dough together to enclose, roll them gently to smoothen and, as you make them, drop them into the simmering water.

5) When the dough balls float to the top, carefully remove them with a slotted spoon and allow any excess water to drip off. Drop the balls into the grated coconut and roll them around to coat evenly. Transfer to a serving plate.