Klepon

Ingredients

• 200g glutinous rice flour
• 30g rice flour
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp pandan paste, or 60ml fresh pandan juice
• 180ml hot water, plus a little extra
• 120g gula jawa palm sugar, finely chopped
• 150g freshly grated coconut, or 120g desiccated coconut rehydrated with 3 tbsp water
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted
• 1/4 tsp fine salt, for the coconut

Before you cook

• Chop the palm sugar as finely as you can with a heavy knife so it melts quickly inside the dough.
• Toss the grated coconut with a quarter teaspoon of salt and the knotted pandan leaf.
• Boil the kettle for the dough water.

Steps

1. Steam the salted coconut with the pandan leaf for eight minutes, then remove the leaf and spread the coconut on a plate to cool.
2. Whisk the glutinous rice flour, rice flour and half teaspoon of salt together in a bowl.
3. Stir the pandan paste into the hot water.
4. Pour the green water into the flour in stages, stirring with a spoon at first and then working it with your hand.
5. Knead the dough for two minutes, adding a splash more hot water if it cracks, until it feels like soft modelling clay.
6. Bring a large pan of water to a gentle boil.
7. Pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a walnut and roll it into a ball.
8. Press your thumb into the ball to make a small cup with walls about 5mm thick.
9. Spoon in half a teaspoon of chopped palm sugar, then pinch the opening shut and reroll the ball until it is perfectly smooth with no seams.
10. Shape the rest of the dough the same way, keeping the finished balls covered with a damp cloth.
11. Lower the balls into the boiling water in batches of eight and stir once so they do not stick to the base.
12. Cook them until they bob to the surface, which takes about six minutes, then give them two minutes more so the sugar melts.
13. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and let them drain for a few seconds.
14. Roll each hot ball in the steamed coconut until it is completely coated.
15. Serve them warm on a banana leaf or plate, and warn people that the sugar inside is molten.