I grew up in Hat Yai, a small but bustling city in Southern Thailand with a rich food culture. While living there, my #1 favourite snack was something I have never seen anywhere else in Thailand. It was called kanom ko, a soft and chewy pandan infused dumplings, filled with a single piece of crunchy, caramelly palm sugar and tossed in grated coconut.
It always bought me so much joy, and after missing them for 30 years, I finally tried making them at home with surprising ease. I'm happy to share this rare part of Thai food culture with you - and by the way they're also naturally gluten free and vegan!
What is Kanom Ko ขนมโค?
Kanom ko ขนมโค are soft and chewy little marble-size dumplings made from glutinous rice flour flavoured with fresh pandan juice. They're filled with a crunchy piece of palm sugar, and tossed with salted grated coconut. If that sounds incredibly delicious, it's because they are!
Sometimes crunchy toasted mung beans are mixed in with the coconut for an extra crunch, but the one I grew up with did not have them. While they're quite rare in Thailand, a similar dessert exists in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia called ondeh ondeh or klepon.
During my search for these long lost childhood treats, I discovered that in Thailand it seems they are found only in Hat Yai. In fact, my searches led to only ONE vendor - an auntie who has been selling them for 40 years. (Though she doesn't seem like the same lady I bought from when I was a kid.)
They are always sold fresh, immediately after cooking as they're best eaten while still warm. Watching the vendor make these dumplings with impressive speed, while inhaling pandan-scented steam is such a joy.
Ingredients and Notes
Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. As you can see it's a very simple dessert! For amounts, see the the full recipe card below.
- Glutinous rice flour. Use glutinous rice flour from Thailand, and make sure the bag says "GLUTINOUS", as regular rice flour is completely different and cannot be substituted. Glutinous rice flour is made from sticky rice and it's what gives the dumplings a chewy, stretchy, mochi-like texture.
- Pandan leaves. A key flavour of kanom ko. You can use fresh or frozen pandan leaves. Worst case, you can use pandan extract but the aroma won't be as good.
- Palm sugar. You will need solid pucks of palm sugar as you will need to chop them into cubes. If the palm sugar you have has been open in your cupboard for a while, I recommend getting a fresh bag because fresher palm sugar are softer and easier to chop. Older palm sugar that has dried out can be very hard, and nearly impossible to cut.
- Shredded coconut, unsweetened. In Thailand, we use freshly grated coconut, but if you can only find dried, you can simply rehydrate it with water.
- Salt.
How to Make Sugar Dumplings (Kanom Ko)
Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below, and if this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!
- Blend pandan leaves with water until there are no more big chunks - do not over blend.
- Strain the pandan juice through a fine mesh strainer, then discard the fibers.
- Add the pandan juice to the glutinous rice flour, little by little, kneading the liquid in each time.
- Once the dough starts to come together, switch to using a teaspoon to add the pandan juice to prevent adding too much liquid by accident.
- Once all the dry flour has been kneaded in, add more pandan juice, ½ - 1 teaspoon at a time to create a softer dough - the goal is to get the dough to be as soft as possible while still being able to hold its shape. This should require roughly half of the pandan juice. If you've accidentally made it too wet, simply add more glutinous rice flour to bring it back.
- Wrap or cover the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes while you prep other things.
- Cut the palm sugar into cubes. Start by chopping it into big chunks, letting whatever flakes off flake off, then take the chunks and cut/shave them down into roughly ¼-inch cubes (best to watch the video tutorial for this part).
- You need to have about 50 pieces of sugar for this recipe, so I recommend lining them up in rows of 5 for easy counting.
- Prepare the coconut by dissolving the salt in the hot water, then drizzle the salt water over the coconut until all has been absorbed. Spread it onto a plate with a bit of depth; such as a pie plate.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and meanwhile wrap the dumplings. Pinch off about a 4-g piece of dough (¾ teaspoon by volume) and press it down to flatten slightly. Place a piece of palm sugar onto it.
- Bring the dough up around the sugar and seal the sugar completely.
- Roll the dough between your hands briefly to make a ball.
- Add half of the dumplings into the water, one at a time, and let them cook until they float; about 2 minutes.
- Scoop them out with a wire skimmer and place them onto the coconut.
- Roll/toss them in the coconut to fully coat. Take them out and repeat with the other half.
- If all goes according to plan, the palm sugar should still be solid and crunchy in the middle. Enjoy while still warm!
3 Tips for The Best Kanom Ko Possible
These are quite easy and forgiving; so easy that Thai people even get kids involved for a family activity! But there are a couple of things to keep in mind for the best possible results.
- Use a fresh bag of palm sugar for the easiest cutting. Palm sugar, like brown sugar, dries out after it's been open for a while. The drier the sugar, the harder it is to chop, till eventually it'll be impossible to chop.
- Cook the dumplings as soon as you're done wrapping. Once the sugar comes into contact with the moist dough, the sugar will pull moisture from the dough and starts to dissolve. Let it dissolve long enough and you'll lose the crunchiness, and some liquid sugar may even leak out from between the seams.
So the wrapping isn't something you want to do ahead of time. In Thailand, vendors wrap each one and immediately throw it into the boiling water! - You want to eat the dumplings while warm, or within 2 hours of cooking. The best kanom ko is one that is warm, soft, and with the palm sugar still distinctly crunchy. While they are still really good after cooling to room temp, if you let them sit long enough, for the same reason as the point above, the sugar will dissolve and eventually lose the crunch. So eat them ASAP, but without burning your mouth 😉.
- Make sure the sugar is completely sealed. The wrapping of kanom ko is very simple, and the only thing you need to make sure is that the sugar is not poking through the dough. When you cut the sugar, keeping it cube-shaped without any pointy ends will help prevent this. When you wrap, ensure the thickness of the dough is even all around so there are no thin points where the sugar can break through.
Advance Prep & Storage
As mentioned above, you want to wrap, cook and eat the dumplings all in one go for the best results. If serving these at a party, prep all the components ahead of time as per the tips below, and invite your friends to a dumpling wrapping party while you digest dinner! It's so much more fun when people participate in their meal!
Here's how you can prep the components in advance:
- The palm sugar can be cut several days ahead and stored in an airtight container.
- The dough can be made several hours ahead. You don't want to refrigerate the dough as that makes it stiff and harder to work with, but you can make it anytime on serving day, and let it sit at room temp until ready to use.
- Rehydrate the coconut a few days ahead and keep in the fridge. Let it come to room temp before using.
- Freezing dumplings: You can potentially wrap the dumplings and freeze them right away, without letting them touch so they don't stick together, then cook them directly from frozen. I have not personally tried this but I don't see why it would not work. Let me know if you try this!
Before you start, if this is your first time, be sure to watch the video tutorial to ensure success!
Like this recipe? You'd also love these!
Pandan Sugar Dumplings (Kanom Ko)
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pandan leaves
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup GLUTINOUS rice flour, NOT regular rice flour
- ¾ cup dried shredded coconut, unsweetened
- ¼ cup hot water
- ¼+⅛ teaspoon table salt
- 7 oz palm sugar pucks, you won’t use nearly this much, but you need to start out with more to get enough nice cubes from it
FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video to ensure success. If you enjoy them, consider subscribing to the YouTube Channel to not miss an episode. Thank you!
Subscribe to my YouTube ChannelInstructions
- Make pandan juice by blending the pandan leaves with water just until there are no more large pieces - do not overblend or it'll be bitter. Then strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer, discarding the fibers. You will need only about half of the pandan juice, but it’s hard to effectively blend an amount less than this, so you can freeze the rest for next time.1 cup chopped pandan leaves, 1 cup water
- To make the dough, place the glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl. Gradually add the pandan juice little by little, mixing with your hand after each addition, until you have a smooth and soft dough that doesn’t stick to your hands and no dry flour is left - you should need about half of the juice. Once all the dry flour is gone, knead in a bit more pandan juice ½ - 1 teaspoon at a time to increase the moisture content for maximally soft dumplings. The goal is to have the softest possible dough that can still hold its shape. If you’ve accidentally made it too wet, simply knead in more glutinous rice flour to bring it back.Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes, covered or wrapped so it doesn’t dry out. Meanwhile, prep the coconut and palm sugar.1 cup GLUTINOUS rice flour
- For the coconut: Dissolve the salt in the hot water. Place the shredded coconut in a small bowl, then drizzle the salt water over and mix well until all the water has been absorbed. Spread the coconut onto a pie plate or a plate with a bit of depth; you’ll be placing the cooked dumplings on here.¼ cup hot water, ¼+⅛ teaspoon table salt, ¾ cup dried shredded coconut
- Cut the palm sugar (best to see video tutorial for this part): Use a sturdy chef’s knife to chop the palm sugar first into big chunks, then take the chunks and cut them down into roughly ¼-inch cube-ish pieces. Much of the palm sugar will flake off into small bits that you can’t use; this is fine, just save them for your cooking. You need to end up with about 50 pieces of palm sugar cubes for this recipe. Tip: While the sugar pieces don’t need to be perfect cubes, you want to trim off any long, sharp points that stick out as this can poke through the dough.7 oz palm sugar pucks
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you wrap the dumplings.
- To wrap the dumplings (also best to see the video for this part), pinch off about ¾ teaspoon worth of dough (4 g) and press it down to flatten with your fingers so it’s between ⅛ - ¼ inch thick. Place one palm sugar cube inside and bring the dough up to wrap the sugar. Once the sugar is completely sealed, roll the dumpling between your palms briefly to make little balls. Make sure the palm sugar isn’t poking out through the dough. Place finished dumplings on a plate.
- Once the water is boiling, add about half of the dumplings, one at a time, into the boiling water (adding 1 at a time ensures they don’t stick together). Let the dumplings cook until they float to the surface; about 2 minutes. Once they float, use a wire skimmer to fish them out, shake off the excess water and place them directly onto the coconut. Roll the dumplings around in the coconut and/or toss with a spoon to coat them, then take them out onto a serving plate. Repeat with the remaining dumplings.
- Ideally you want to serve these while warm, or at least within 2 hours of making them. If you let them sit for a long time the palm sugar inside will dissolve into liquid, and you won't have that crunchiness that I think is the highlight of this treat. Do not refrigerate. See more in the Tips section in the blog post.
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