27 Modern & Traditional Indonesian Dessert Recipes

Dadar Gulung is essentially a delicious little vegan coconut-flavored pancake or crepe.

They typically come in a grass-like green color, and you use them like tortillas by wrapping them around a tasty shredded coconut filling.

I highly recommend enjoying these sweet roll-ups with fresh fruit, as it pairs perfectly with the nutty flavors.

Klepon looks very similar to green-colored mochi with the addition of a shredded coconut coating.

The dessert consists of palm sugar-stuffed chewy, coconut-flavored rice balls that get rolled in some steamed coconut. They’re like little drops of sweet coconut heaven.

Although these are technically a dessert, I enjoy having them as a sweet snack.

Kue Lapis looks a little similar to the Russian Tea Cakes you can find in bakeries, with its pink and yellow-green layers.

However, this Indonesian dessert is more pudding-like. It combines coconut milk, rice flour, tapioca flour, sugar, and a few other ingredients to make a gelatinous layered dessert. 

Don’t let the bounciness of the dessert scare you off, as it has a delicious vanilla and coconut flavor. The texture might feel weird at first, but I promise that it’s worth a try.

Kue Putu is a prominent street food dessert that you can find almost everywhere in Indonesia.

It is a rice flour-based dessert that gets dyed green with pandan leaves.

The dough gets molded into cylinders, filled with palm sugar, steamed, and then covered with shredded coconut. I love the softness and sweetness that this dessert offers.

Wajik reminds me of an Indonesian-style Rice Krispies treat, except you use cooked rice rather than cereal.

The dessert combines palm sugar, coconut milk, and pandan leaves with rice to create a sticky, sweet rice cake.

The pandan leaves bring in a slightly grassy flavor and delicious hints of vanilla. 

In addition, various parts of the pandan plant have potential health benefits and have been recommended in non-Western traditional medicine for treating a wide range of ailments.

Shredded coconut, rice flour, and a few other ingredients combine to make Wingko Babat which is like a coconut bar topped with sesame seeds.

If you’ve ever had a Mounds candy bar, this is exactly what it reminds me of, just without the chocolate coating.

If you like coconut, this is the dessert for you.

If you’re looking for a little more flavor than just coconut, Es-Teler combines jackfruit and avocado with coconut to create a cold fruit cocktail.

The coconut water and coconut milk create a creamy consistency, pairing well with the fruit and smooth avocado.

I think this is a great dessert to have on a hot summer day.

Getuk Ubi Kayu is a sweet cassava cake topped with shredded coconut.

Cassava is a delicious root vegetable, and I love the nutty and earthy flavor it brings to the sugar and coconut.

The vegetable is also good for you, as it contains B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin), vitamin C, and even protein.

Kue Cucur is a circular rice and wheat flour-based fitter that provides both chewy and crunchy textures.

They’re typically sweetened and flavored with brown sugar and pandan leaves, creating a molasses, vanilla taste.

Although the fritters look a little similar to mushroom caps, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the flavor.

Kue Lumpur is a cassava and wheat flour-based circular cake with multiple layers of sweetness.

They look and feel like little custard pancakes, and I love the sweet creaminess they get from sweetened condensed milk.

It has hints of nuttiness, milkiness, and slight fruitiness from the raisins. 

Lapis Legit is a delicious thinly layered cake consisting of light and dark-colored batters flavored with warm spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace.

It’s the perfect flavorful winter holiday dessert that most people will enjoy.

I love how moist this spice cake is, and it goes great with a fresh cup of coffee.

Rice flour and tapioca flour combine with coconut milk, sugar, and other ingredients to make a tasty banana cake called Kue Nagasari.

The batter gets steamed and filled with fresh banana pieces to make the perfect tropical-flavored dessert.

I love the flavors of coconut and banana in these soft cakes, as they remind me of summertime.

Ongol Ongol Hunkwe is a sugary bean flour-based cake that almost looks like gelatin.

After everything gets cooked down and sets, you roll the cubes of cake into coconut for the perfect nutty finish.

I love to enjoy these sweet squares with coffee or tea.

Pie Susu Bali is like a custard pie made with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and water.

The pie crust is nothing fancy, so you can use your usual pie crust recipe. This pie is very rich and creamy, so you’ll only need one slice to feel full.

This is one of my favorite Indonesian desserts.

Pisang Goreng is a simple dessert, but I think it’s one of the best out there.

Saba bananas are delicious on their own, but frying them in a slightly sweet rice flour batter is even better.

The crunchy outside with the sweet, soft banana inside is the perfect dessert. 

Bananas are even slightly healthy, as bananas are chock full of potassium, fiber, probiotics, and vitamins A, B6, C, and magnesium.

Bingka Ubi Jalar is a tasty sweet potato cake made with coconut milk, cinnamon, and your typical cake ingredients.

When the cake finishes cooking, it looks similar to a crustless pumpkin pie with its beautiful bright orange color.

I love the custard-like consistency of this cake and the subtle holiday flavor that comes from the cinnamon and sweet potato.

You’ve probably had rice pudding at some point, but Bubur Sumsum uses rice flour, coconut milk, and pandan.

So, instead of grainy rice in your dessert, you’ll get a smooth, creamy dessert that looks a lot like yogurt.

I love the brown sugar sauce, as it goes well with the coconut. 

Coconut Milk Agar Jelly is a little like an Indonesian flan but without eggs or other animal products.

It only uses coconut milk, coconut water, sugar, and agar, which creates a gelatin-like dessert when you allow it to set.

I love the palm sugar syrup, which adds a tasty caramel-like flavor to the jelly, bringing it all together. 

Colenak is just mashed-up cassava turned into little patties. The patties get cooked in a pan until golden brown on each side, and then you eat them with a palm sugar sauce.

Plain cassava can have a slight bitterness to it, so I think the palm sugar sauce is the perfect addition to cut out that harshness.

Having soup for dessert might sound odd, but the mixture of sugar, tapioca pearls, and sweet fruits and vegetables is the perfect light dessert.

The coconut milk adds a good amount of sweetness to create a delicious broth, and the tapioca pearls add a nice pop.

I love the taste of the pumpkin, which can add up to 209% of your daily vitamin A intake to your diet.

Martabak is a pan-fried pancake or bread. They have the typical pancake ingredients such as milk, sugar, and eggs, but you usually include tapioca flour as well.

This addition helps make the pancakes a little chewy with a nice crust on the outside. 

Martabak is rather thick and is usually filled with chocolate, nuts, and sweetened condensed milk. I like to think of them as sweet sandwiches.

If you’re a fan of crepes, Kue Ape would be a great food to help introduce you to Indonesian desserts.

The primary ingredients are rice flour, wheat flour, and coconut milk and you cook them the same way you cook crepes.

In return, you’ll get a deliciously sweet, thin pancake with a subtle coconut taste. I like to eat these with fresh strawberries.

Dodol is like a chewy caramel candy that just melts away in your mouth.

The coconut milk adds a slight nuttiness that meshes well with the palm sugar and the vanilla grassiness of the pandan.

The taste is almost toffee-like, and I’m a big toffee fan, so this Indonesian confection was a yes for me.

Kue Lupis is a sticky rice dessert dumpling made with shredded coconut and a sweet palm sugar sauce.

These little pillows of rice taste great on their own, but the palm sugar sauce adds a delicious caramel-like flavor that dresses the plain dumplings up a little.

I like to dip the dumplings into the sauce rather than pour it on top.

Kue Pancong is like a sweet, coconut-flavored, rice flour-based cake.

You typically serve them in half circles and then top them with cinnamon and sugar, or shredded coconut.

They are a delicious burst of coconut due to the dough having coconut milk and shredded coconut. If I have leftovers, I like to make French toast with them.

Puding Agar Gula Merah is another flan-like dessert that excludes eggs.

The main ingredients are coconut milk, sugar, and pandan, which get formed within molds to create a jiggly dessert.

It’s basically a coconut sugar pudding, but it tastes almost candy-like. This was one of the first Indonesian desserts I’ve ever tried, and I loved it.

At first glance, this dessert looks like a bunch of egg yolks. However, those little balls are sweet potato and tapioca flour, served on sugar and tapioca-based porridge. 

The coconut milk pairs so well with the starch from the little sweet potato pillows, making me crave this dessert all the time.

Sweet potatoes also provide your body with 400% of your daily vitamin A intake and prevent heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. So, it’s a slightly healthy dessert.