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Have a jelly dessert with pandan coconut made with tapioca starch, pandan leaves, and coconut milk. It has two different layers: the grassy pandan layer and the creamy coconut layer. Create this dessert by steaming each layer for 3 minutes.

What To Know About Pandan Coconut Dessert

Pandan coconut is a multi-layer jelly dessert. It has green and white layers stacked, giving you a striped appearance. Each layer is steamed for about 3 minutes until the layer solidifies.

The green layer is made with pandan leaves, water, baking soda, coconut milk, tapioca starch, cornstarch, rice flour, and sugar. On the other hand, the white layer is a mixture of coconut milk, tapioca starch, cornstarch, rice flour, and sugar. Although other recipes may use only agar agar or gelatin for the jelly texture, my recipe uses several ingredients in one to ensure a wonderful jiggly texture that is smooth and creamy.

It is a popular dessert to cool down on a hot day after cooling it in the fridge. Enjoy its grassy vanilla taste with strong coconut goodness! If you love dessert recipes, you should try these as well:

What Are Pandan Leaves?

Pandan leaves are a fragrant tropical plant that is also known as Pandanus amaryllifolius. It has a sweet, floral aroma and a grassy vanilla taste with notes of coconut flavors. The leaves are green, long, and elongated.

You can find this in Asian stores in various forms, including fresh, powder, extract, and paste. Once you have pandan leaves, you can use it for various dishes, from desserts to wraps and drinks. In this recipe, the leaves are chopped into bits before blending them with water to become juice.

Why Tapioca Starch Is Essential

Tapioca starch comes from a tuber plant called cassava. You may also find this in the store labeled as cassava starch. It is popularly used for chewy desserts, such as Mango Tapioca Pudding, Taro Sago (Tapioca) Dessert Soup, and Homemade Tapioca Pearls.

Moreover, it is also used as a thickening agent, especially if you need an alternative to cornstarch. In this recipe, tapioca starch is key in making the layers chewy and jelly-like. Keep in mind that tapioca starch is different from tapioca flour.

Although both types come from the same cassava root, they will yield slightly different results. Tapioca starch provides a lighter texture, while tapioca flour tends to be coarser. So, if you are going to use tapioca flour, the measurement requirement will change.

The Pandan And Coconut Layers

Here’s a breakdown of ingredients for each layer. I share below why each ingredient is crucial in achieving the best taste and texture. Moreover, I listed a few alternatives to consider should you need to replace an ingredient.

Pandan Layer:

Pandan leaves: Pandan leaves are available fresh, frozen or dried in Asian supermarkets. In this recipe, I used 6 pandan leaves. It should give the dessert a fragrant aroma and a delightful bright green color. As a last resort, go for pandan extract, paste, or powder if you can’t find whole pandan leaves and adjust the amount accordingly.
Water: You will need water to blend with the pandan leaves and make the juice. Instead of water, use any type of milk if you want to make it creamier.
Soda powder: Soda powder or baking soda helps enhance the color and neutralize tangy flavors.
Coconut milk: Coconut milk makes the layer creamy and rich in coconut flavors. An excellent alternative to coconut milk is coconut cream, which is higher in fat and less runny. You can also use regular plant-based milk, such as soy or oat milk, and simply add coconut flakes, shredded coconut, or coconut flavoring to instill the delicious coconut flavors. If you want a lighter flavor and texture, go for coconut water.
Tapioca starch: Use tapioca starch, not tapioca powder or tapioca flour as these will have different measurement requirements. You can find tapioca starch in most local grocery stores, Asian stores, and online stores like Amazon.
Cornstarch: Cornstarch is another ingredient that contributes to the chewy texture of the dessert. Although there is tapioca starch already, combining cornstarch helps create a more balanced texture. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can substitute it with the following and adjust the amount accordingly:
- All-Purpose Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Arrowroot Powder (1:1 ratio)
- Tapioca Starch/Flour (1:1 ratio)
- Potato Starch (1:1 ratio)
- Rice Flour (1:1 ratio)
Rice flour: Rice flour is derived from milled long or medium-grain white rice, such as japonica, sinandomeng, angelica, or indica, to name a few. This also imparts a slightly chewy texture for the layer. Keep in mind this is not the same as glutinous rice flour, which is made from glutinous rice or sticky rice. Glutinous rice flour is not ideal for the recipe since it will make it sticky, chewy, and firm.
Sugar: Add a bit of sugar for sweetness. You can use any type of sweetener, including white sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, or coconut sugar.

Coconut Layer: For the coconut layer, you will also be using the same ingredients as the pandan layer, except for pandan leaves, water, and soda powder. Follow the same tips and suggestions as mentioned already above.

Tapioca starch
Cornstarch
Rice flour
Sugar
Coconut milk

What Ingredients And Kitchenware To Prepare?

Use a blender or food processor to make the pandan juice. Then, you will need a strainer to strain the juice and separate clumps. Some kitchen tools that will help you make the recipe easier are a whisk to mix, an oil brush to coat the tray, and a large pot with a lid to steam.

When it comes to steaming, you can use your regular steaming equipment. If you don’t have a steamer, you can still steam without a steamer in 5 ways: pan with steamer rack, microwave, pan with sieve, rice cooker, and instant pot. Make sure the container you will use to pour the layers fits the steaming equipment you have.

Kitchenware:

Scissors or knife
Blender or food processor
Strainer
Whisk
Oil brush
Steamer
Stainless steel tray (for steaming)
Kitchen weighing scale (for a more accurate measurement)

Pandan Layer:

6 pieces pandan leaves (chopped and blended)
200g of water
1 tsp of soda powder or baking soda
100g of coconut milk
160g of tapioca starch (not tapioca powder)
20g of cornstarch
20g of rice flour
75g of sugar

Coconut Layer:

140g of tapioca starch
30g of cornstarch
20g of rice flour
70g of sugar
300g of coconut milk

Detailed Steps On How To Make Pandan Coconut

Basically, it is about making the green and white mixtures for your pandan and coconut layers. Once you have the 2 mixtures, the pandan mixture is poured first and steamed in the tray, followed by the coconut layer, and so on. Watch the full recipe video on Instagram or TikTok.

Did you finish making this dessert? How was the experience of making it? Let us know in the comments section and don’t forget to tag @kitchenmisadventures!

Clean and cut pandan leaves into small pieces using scissors or a knife.
Blend the chopped pandan leaves with 200g of water to make the green juice.
Strain the juice using a strainer and add soda powder. Mix with a whisk. Straining the juice is key in removing clumps for a silky, creamy texture.
Mix in coconut milk, tapioca starch, cornstarch, rice flour, and sugar to create the pandan layer. Stir well and set aside.
In a separate container, mix tapioca starch, cornstarch, rice flour, sugar, and coconut milk to prepare the coconut layer.
Choose a container that will fit your steamer and brush it with oil. The container should fit inside the steamer or pot while covered with a lid.
Stir the pandan and coconut mixtures again before pouring each layer into the container. Pour the pandan mixture first and create an even, thin layer. Don‘t make it too thin and make sure the entire container is covered with the mixture to have an equal layer.
Bring water to a boil, then reduce to medium heat. Steam each layer for 3 minutes until it firms up. Steam the pandan layer first, followed by the coconut layer, and the pandan layer again, and so on. Generally, there are no rules as to which layer is steamed first and how many layers to create. For me, I made 8 layers.
Steam the last pandan layer for 5 minutes.
After steaming, let it cool completely and remove the dessert from the container by gently tapping and moving it. After that, cut the Pandan Coconut Jelly into your desired size.
Enjoy this dessert whether chilled or not. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you love coconut recipes, try making Peanut Mochi Sprinkled With Coconut Powder, Homemade Chinese Coconut Pudding With Sago, Milk Pudding Recipe With Coconut Shreds, and Easy Mango Coconut Milk Pudding Dessert.