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Nyonya kuih—or Nyonya sweet cakes—is a big part of Nyonya cuisine. In fact, Nyonya kuih is iconic, so much so that it outshines savory dishes. Ask anyone around and it’s likely that they have had some sort of Nyonya kuih, but may not have sampled other Nyonya dishes. Many Nyonya kuih are simply adaptations of Malay kuih-muih, or Malay version of sweet cakes and desserts.
Kuih dadar or kuih tayap is a rolled crepe flavored with pandan juice and filled with grated coconut steeped in gula melaka or Malaysian palm sugar. Pandan leaf is the core ingredient of kuih dadar/kuih tayap. The green exterior of kuih dadar is made of batter colored with natural pandan juice extracted from pandan leaves. Nowadays, many kuih vendors use artificial coloring for convenience purposes, but the end product usually lacks the tempting sweet fragrance of pandan leaves. Also, the coloring appear somewhat bright or fluorescent green, a sure-fire tell tale sign of artificial coloring…
This kuih dadar/kuih tayap recipe is adapted from Nyonya Flavours: A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine. Making Nyonya kuih is no simple affair but I find kuih dadar to be rather painless to make and the end result is beautiful and gratifying, especially if you have a sweet tooth.
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I had Nyonya kuih in the past (except i didn’t know how they were called) and i always wondered how they were made. I love these! You think you could put a few in your purse and bring to NY next week? Come on Bee. ;)
Zen – get me the ingredients and I will make them for you. ;)
Hi RM, may I know where you get grated coconut and pandan leaves in the US? I cannot find them… :( THANK YOU!!!
Su Yee, you can find grated coconut and pandan leaves in the frozen food section of Asian stores. They are always available at Vietnamese stores. Good luck!!
do you know roughly how much coconut i would need if i buy the frozen sort? thanks!
I love kuih dadar. We’ve got the same version in Indonesia and it’s called kue dadar there, as far as I know. Malaysia and Indonesia seem to have got very similar culinary variety.
Hi Cooking Gallery – yes, I agree. In fact, in Southeast Asia, there are many similarities in terms of our foods. I am not surprised that this kuih dadar has its roots in Indonesian cuisine. :)
My grandmothers used to grow this in our backyard (back when I was growing up in Indonesia). Every time I get a whiff of this scent, it takes me right back to her and our time together. Great posting!
i love your site.Carry on to write tasty asian food.
im from indo,also have tasty recipes 2 share oneday…
thanks for doing this`blog. I am chinese malaysian live permanently in Australia. I am not a`good cook but when my friend told`me this`blog. I looked at it and thank god now I can cook homecook Malaysian food at home for my husband and my son. very happy ..
Lynn – great to hear that. Enjoy the recipes on this site and also Rasa Malaysia. :)
Nyonya cuisine is very similar to Indonesian cuisine. Anyway, to the best of my knowledge, the natural green colour that we use for colouring is daun suji. Daun pandan is usually only for fragrant but not the best one for colouring.
So, we combine both leaves, suji and pandan together.
Yes, I don’t doubt that Nyonya food has a lot of similarities to Indonesian cuisine. Many Nyonya only know how to speak Malay.
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This is amazing i used a lot of this great imfo for my homework. On the country im from. My fav nyonya kuih is kuih tayap.
I’m in Germany and I don’t get fresh coconut it …. would desiccated coconut work as well? Is there much of a different in taste??
Actually, you need fresh coconut for this recipe. Desiccated coconut will be too dry. :(
Okay so I am in the middle of trying to follow this recipe using a metric-to-english converter, and the batter is not coming out right. I made the pandan juice and added it, but the batter is nowhere near as green as the picture. I used 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup coconut milk, and 3 Tablespoons of pandan juice. The batter is coming out just kind of whitish yellow like pancake batter with a slight hint of green. It’s like the pandan juice wasn’t strong enough to turn it all green! What am I doing wrong?
Also I used dried coconut for the filling and it tastes just fine to me. And palm sugar is a pain to work with!
Hi Tom, is your pandan leaf frozen? If so, it will not be as green. Regarding the color, you can add more pandan juice if it’s not the color you wish.
I haven’t had this since I lived in Malaysia in 1986 with a Malay family – oh, how I’ve missed it! Definitely a recipe I’ll try soon. Thanks so much….
Please, could you tell me how many kuih dadar does this recipe make? Do reply soon! :)
This is my favorite kuih. But I can’t find pandan leaves in China. What can I use for substitute?
Appreciate your early reply
You really need to use pandan for this, if not, you can use green coloring.
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Thank you, I just tried this recipe. The taste was wonderful, I just had a little problem with the crepe, I think I made it too small and the the crepe kept tearing when I was wrapping. Can anyone please share if they had the same experience.
Is the pandanus that grows in Australia the same or similar enough to the Malaysian to use?
so where am I going to find these ingredients? you should add some things that can replace them because I don’t even know what pandan is…
Hi!
Thank you for the recipe! I made these them today and they turn out edible though not as perfect as yours or those I ate before.
Some questions I have, I did not know how much was 1/2 coconut grated as in grams or cups. I misread it as 1/2 cup of grated coconut and realized it was too little halfway cooking the filling. Good thing I had extra grated coconut and added more. Also, I used thick coconut milk as it was not specified whether to use thick or thin coconut milk.
Critical part is when making the crepe, it was very flimsy to handle as in when i transfer to the cutting board it tears very easily. It was also very oily although I used a non stick pan. The ones bought from store were not as oily, is it normal to be oily?
Lastly, may I know how to achieve the texture of your crepe in the picture? Mine was very smooth and didn’t have the texture like yours and those sold outside.
Sorry for the many questions.
very nice and tasty one
great post! really love your site! lots of recipes and information. Im a fan of nyonya and malay kuihs. i thought your recipes are great. keep coming.