Translations:Malaysian cuisine/89/en

Desserts and sweets

Ais kacang

Batik cake

Desserts and sweets in Malaysia are diverse, due to the multi-ethnic and multicultural characteristics of its society. Traditional Malay and Nyonya desserts tend to share a common feature however: generous amounts of coconut milk are used, and the finished product usually flavoured with gula melaka (palm sugar) and pandan leaves. Some notable desserts include:

• Agar agar, the Malay word for a species of red algae. A natural vegetarian gelatin counterpart, agar-agar is used to make puddings and flavoured jellies like almond tofu, as well as fruit aspics.
• Ais kacang, also known as air batu campur or abbreviated as ABC, this dessert consists of a base of shaved ice, coloured syrup, and evaporated or condensed milk with a variety of toppings. These may include sweet corn kernels, red beans, kidney beans, cincau (grass jelly), cendol, buah atap (fruit of the nipa palm), soaked basil seeds, peanuts, and ice cream.
• Aiskrim potong, an ice cream popsicle made from coconut milk or milk, flavoured with localised ingredients like red beans, rose syrup, durian, pandan, creamed corn and jackfruit. Its texture is different from Western ice cream; aiskrim potong is less creamy and has a slightly starchy taste when it begins to melt.
• Batik cake, a type of chocolate cake similar like the hedgehog slice made using Marie biscuit.
• Bolu cocu, a traditional Kristang cake topped with liberal amounts of shredded coconut and served with a custard sauce.
• Bubur cha cha, a Nyonya dessert of bananas, sweet potatoes, taro, black eyed beans and sago pearls cooked in pandan-flavoured coconut milk. May be served hot or cold.
• Bubur kacang hijau, mung bean porridge cooked with coconut milk and sweetened with palm or cane sugar. It is called canje mungoo by the Kristang community, and is usually served in conjunction with the feast day of St John the Baptist (Festa da San Juang).

Bubur pulut hitam, without coconut milk.

Sarawak layered cake.

• Bubur pulut hitam, black glutinous rice porridge cooked with palm sugar and pandan leaves, served hot with coconut milk.
• Cendol, smooth green-coloured droplets made from mung bean or rice flour, usually served by itself in chilled coconut milk and gula melaka, or as a topping for ABC. In Malacca, mashed durian is a popular topping for cendol.
• Coconut candy, a confection of grated coconut, sugar, condensed milk, flavouring and colouring, coconut candies are a popular sweet served at homes during festive occasions and available at restaurants specialising in Indian sweets.
• Dadih, a Malay dairy-based dessert made from milk, sugar and salt which has been acidified with whey (obtained by fermenting milk overnight with asam gelugur) and steamed to form a custard like texture. Although popular in contemporary recipes, agar agar is not used as a gelling agent for authentic dadih.
• Dodol, a sweet, sticky, and thick toffee-like confection, made with heavily reduced coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour. Commonly served during festivals such as Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as sweet treats for children.
• Halva or Halwa, the term refers to a range of dense and sweet confections in Malaysia bearing similar names, though they may have little in common in terms of ingredients and texture. Various types of fudge-like flour and nut-based halva cooked with ghee, which are based on traditional recipes brought over from India, are commonly available at specialist sweet shops and regularly prepared by the Indian communities for festive occasions. The Malay community have different recipes for a range of confectionery bearing similar names, which includes candied fruit and Halwa Maskat, a gelatinous jelly made from flour, ghee and pieces of fruit or nut which is similar in texture to Turkish delight.
• Hinompuka, a native Sabahan steamed confection traditionally wrapped in banana or irik (phacelophrynium maximum) leaves. Sold in local markets and is also an essential food item for celebrating weddings, birthdays and festivals, hinompuka is made with a moistened blend of pounded white glutinous rice and purplish-black glutinous rice (tadung) sweetened with brown or palm sugar. Kadazandusun communities beyond Sabah's West Coast Division make similar desserts but are known under different names, including but not limited to bintanok, lompuka, tinapung, and pais. Variations include the substitution of rice flour batter with grated tapioca or mashed corn kernels; banana leaves or coconut husks as alternative wrappers; and the addition of ripe bananas or freshly grated coconut to the starchy mixture.
• Keria Gula Melaka, is a type of doughnuts that made of sweet potato and slicked with smoky gula Melaka, Malaysian palm sugar.
• Ladoo, the most popular of all Indian sweetmeats in Malaysia, particularly during Diwali/Deepavali season, ladoo comes in many different flavours. A typical ladoo recipe involves cooking chickpea flour, semolina and ground coconut in ghee.
• Leng chee kang (Chinese: 莲子羹; Jyutping: lin4 zi2 gang1, erroneously named lai chi kang or lai chee kang), a mixture of cooked ingredients immersed in a sweet soup. Ingredients vary greatly depending on the cook, but lotus seed is always the primary ingredient, and the soup may include dried longan, white fungus, barley, kembang semangkuk jelly and rock sugar as secondary ingredients. Leng Chee Kang may be served warm or cold.
• Matterhorn, crushed ice with pineapples, longan, cendol, grass jelly and lemon slices. The Kuching hawker who came up with this popular dessert as well as the original White Lady drink was inspired by the Matterhorn, an ice-capped mountain on the Swiss-Italian border.
• Mooncake (Chinese : 月饼), round or rectangular pastries with a rich thick filling, traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival and accompanied with Chinese tea. Both the traditional baked mooncake and the snow skin version are popular and widely available in Malaysia during the festival season.
• Nanggiu, a Kadazandusun dessert, which consists of jelly noodles made from fresh sago flour cooked in a coconut milk soup sweetened with palm sugar.
• Pandan cake, coloured and flavoured with pandan juice, this light and fluffy cake is also known as pandan chiffon.
• Payasam, a sweet spiced pudding made from starchy staples like rice or vermicelli, payasam is an integral part of traditional South Indian culture.
• Pengat, a soupy dessert cooked with gula melaka and coconut milk. Also known as serawa, pengat is made with pieces of fruit like banana, jackfruit and durian, or root vegetables like sweet potatoes and tapioca. It may be reduced further into a thick dipping sauce and served with glutinous rice, roti jala, or pancakes (lempeng).
• Pisang goreng, a common snack sold by street vendors, battered fried bananas are also served in a more elaborate manner at some cafes and restaurants as a dessert. Cempedak and various tuber vegetables are also battered and fried in the same manner as variations.
• Puding Diraja, also known as Royal Pudding, this dessert was developed and served to the royal family of Pahang state. Its basic ingredients are pisang lemak manis (a local cultivar of banana), evaporated milk, prunes, candied cherries and cashew nuts. The pudding is garnished with jala emas, and served with a cold sauce made from milk and cornflour. Nowadays it is popularly served during Ramadan, as well as a special afternoon tea treat for the family on weekends.
• Pulot tartal, a Nyonya glutinous rice dessert.
• Sago pudding, a dessert of cooked translucent sago pearls, which may be served as a liquid dessert with coconut milk and palm sugar, or allowed to set as a pudding (sagu gula melaka) and drizzled with thickened coconut milk and gula melaka syrup.
• Sarawak layer cake, these famously intricate layer cakes are essential for festive occasions celebrated throughout Sarawak, like Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Gawai and Christmas.
• Sugee cake, a baked speciality of the Eurasian community, made with semolina flour and a high concentration of egg yolks.
• Tangyuan (Chinese : 汤圆 or 湯圓), plain white or coloured sweet dumplings made from glutinous rice flour. Traditionally homemade and eaten during Yuanxiao (Chinese : 元宵) as well as the Dongzhi Festival (Chinese : 冬至), tangyuan is now available year around sold as dessert. Tangyuan dumplings with filling are usually served in a lightly sweetened clear syrup, while unfilled ones are served as part of a sweet dessert soup.
• Tapai, a popular dessert at Malay homes throughout Peninsular Malaysia during Hari Raya, made from fermented glutinous rice or tapioca. Tapai may be eaten on its own, or served with contemporary toppings like ice cream, chocolate and fruit. Not to be confused with the alcoholic beverage from Sabah, also known as tapai, which is made from the same ingredients and with similar methods but have undergone advanced stages of fermentation to produce alcoholic content.
• Tau foo fah or Dau Huay (Chinese : 豆腐花 or 豆花), a velvety pudding of very soft silken tofu, traditionally flavoured with a brown sugar syrup.
• UFO tart (Chinese : 牛屎堆), this consists of a flat, thin base of baked mini butter sponge cake topped with a creamy egg custard, which is in turn crowned with a meringue slurry. Its name in Chinese literally means "cow pile dung", which alludes to the piped shape of the cake base's toppings and the meringue's darker shade as a result of caramelisation. Popularized by a Hainanese bakery in Sandakan in the 1950s, the popularity of these treats has spread to Kota Kinabalu and several other towns in Sabah.