Malaysians from all walks of life love ondeh-ondeh. There’s just something about these chewy, fluffy balls of goodness that makes us squirm with delight every time we bite into one made with the perfect balance of chew and liquid goodness. But what if you wanted to switch things up just a little? Add a little surprise to an absolutely classic treat? Well, get ready, because chocolate ondeh-ondeh will blow your mind.
You can just imagine it, can’t you? Biting into a chewy exterior of an ondeh-ondeh, followed by a warm ooze of melted chocolate. It’s surprising but also oh so comforting, and you can’t help but take another, and another, and another. And maybe just one more.
Chocolate ondeh-ondeh is an amazing treat, and incredibly simple to put together. Follow our recipe below to the T we’re pretty sure you can’t go wrong. It’s a very forgiving recipe and as long as you don’t mind getting your hands a little messy, you’ll be making these ondeh-ondehs like a pro in no time. We paired our chocolate ondeh-ondeh with semi-sweet chocolate chips, but they will also go great with milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips if you prefer a stronger, more decadent chocolate flavour.
Ingredients
- 60g glutinous rice flour + extra if needed
- 30g rice flour
- 1/8 tsp pandan extract
- 75ml (5 tbsp) water + extra if needed
- 50g freshly grated coconut
- 2g (1/4) tsp fine sea salt
- 55g semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 pandan leaf, knotted
- Water for boiling
Preparation
- In a bowl or plate, mix freshly grated coconut with salt. As salt intensities can vary, taste your mixture. You want the salt to bring out the rich flavour of the grated coconut without ending up with a salty mix. Add more grated coconut if you find the mixture too salty.
Making chocolate ondeh-ondeh
- In a mixing bowl, combine glutinous rice flour and rice flour and whisk to mix.
- Add pandan extract to water. Stir to mix evenly and watch that stunning green colour appear!
- Add pandan extract mixture to the flour, then combine it until it forms a pastel green dough. We found this easier done by hand. You want a dough with a texture that feels elastic, almost like playdough. However, it should not feel sticky on the fingers. If the dough feels too dry, add some water 1 teaspoon at a time. If it’s too moist, add glutinous rice flour 1 teaspoon at a time. The dough should not stick to your fingers.
- Divide and roll the dough into roughly 18 balls, of about 9-10g each. Place them on a surface dusted with glutinous rice flour as these balls can get quite sticky.
- Dust your hands with a little bit of glutinous rice flour. Take one ball and flatten it on the palm of your hand. You don’t want to flatten it too thinly or overly thick. Too thin and your balls can easily tear while cooking. Too thick and it’ll just be too chewy. About 3mm thick is a good size, but if you’re a first-timer, err on the (slightly) thicker side until you get the hang of it.
- Add about 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate chips in the middle, then shape the dough back into a ball to cover the filling. Repeat until you’ve used up all the balls of dough.
Cooking
- Bring about 7cm to 10cm worth water to a boil in a small or medium-sized pot with the knotted pandan placed leaf inside.
- Place the uncooked balls of chocolate ondeh-ondeh into the pot. Work in small batches. Let the balls boil until they float, plus a few minutes extra to completely melt the chocolate chips, roughly 10 to 15 minutes of total boiling time depending on how large your ondeh-ondeh are.
- Once the balls have cooked, remove them with a strainer, shaking it lightly to get rid of excess water.
- Immediately transfer the balls to the grated coconut and roll them around until they are evenly coated.
- Once coated, place the balls on a platter and let it cool to room temperature before serving. We don’t recommend cooling them down in a refrigerator as they will tend to harden.
Freezing tip!
Did you know that you can freeze ondeh-ondeh? That’s right. If you’ve got time to spare and since you’re already getting your hands sticky, make a giant batch of these balls by following steps 1 to 8 and freezing the extras after step 8. We recommend freezing them in separate containers for portion control. When you’re ready to cook them, mix your grated coconut accordingly and proceed with step 9 onwards. It will take a little longer to cook from frozen (about 10 minutes extra boiling time from the when it starts to float), and you do not need to defrost it first. However, do not freeze already cooked ondeh-ondeh! You’ll just have to eat everything up! That’s not a particularly difficult task now is it?
Extra tips
- You can use 100% glutinous rice flour and omit the rice flour completely. However, this results in a very soft and squishy ondeh-ondeh. The rice flour helps to give the little balls of chocolate ondeh-ondeh their structure and spherical shape. Feel free to reduce the amount of rice flour while topping up the same amount in glutinous rice flour until you find a combination of softness and firmness that you like. However, if you’re a first-timer, the ratio we’ve used above is great for a fuss-free ondeh-ondeh recipe.
- Freshly grated coconut is best, however, in a pinch, you can use frozen or refrigerated grated coconut, depending on what’s available at your local or Asian supermarket. If you’re using frozen or refrigerated, steam the grated coconut mixed with salt for 15-20 minutes, then spread it on a plate or bowl to cool. If you’re really desperate, use desiccated coconut steamed with salt, but it won’t have that fluffy texture of grated coconut.
- You can also use homemade natural pandan extract. The colour of your ondeh-ondeh will not be as striking, but that is completely fine.
Are you ready to for a dose of chocolate ondeh-ondeh? We won’t keep you any longer! Just don’t forget to share with us a picture of your very first bite of chocolate ondeh-ondeh by tagging us with #butterkicap!
