What is martabak?
Martabak is a famous traditional snack / street food that you can find on almost every island in Indonesia which closely resembles a pancake. There are two types of Martabak sweet and savory. The sweet Martabak is called Martabak Manis or Terang Bulan and the savory version is called Martabak Telur (Telur means egg in Bahasa Indonesia). Martabak Manis is usually topped with chocolate sprinkles, cheese, condensed milk, butter and crushed peanuts. I know very healthy! Nowadays, you can find some with more international flavor toppings like Ovomaltine, peanut butter, Toblerone, Lotus Biscoff Spread, etc. The original batter of Martabak is usually finished off with vanilla essence, but you can also find the batter mixed with pandan paste which gives it a green color. In this recipe, I will show you how to make the Martabak Manis, which is the sweet version.
Substitution
Pandan juice: If you are not able to find pandan leaves in your local Asian store, you can substitute it with this pandan flavoring extract from Amazon. This is the most commonly used pandan extract in Indonesia.
Martabak Manis / Sweet Indonesian Pancake
Course: DessertCuisine: IndonesianDifficulty: Easy4
servings1
hour15
minutesOne of the popular Indonesian snack that you can easily creates at home.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup / 225 gram all purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp milk powder (optional)
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cup of water
3/4 tsp baking soda
sugar, for sprinkling
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence / 1 tsp pandan paste (optional)
- Toppings
Crushed Peanuts
Butter
Grated Cheese
Condensed Milk
Chocolate sprinkle / Nutella
Directions
- Pandan Juice (optional)
- Cut the pandan leaves into 1-inch squares. Add the cut leaves and 1 cup of water into a blender and blend for up to 1 minute until no big chunks remain.
- Using a cheesecloth or a fine sieve, sieve the mixture. Set aside.
- Batter
- In a mixing bowl, mix 1 3/4 cup flour, 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp milk powder, 250 ml water or (pandan juice) and beat at a low-medium speed for about 5 – 6 minutes.
- Add eggs and baking powder to the mixing bowl. Fold until the eggs are combined with the batter. Let the mixture rest for at least 60 minutes or until bubbles start to appear on the batter.
- When you are ready to make your martabak, add 1/4 cup water and 3/4 cup baking soda into a separate small bowl, mix well. Add the baking soda water into the batter and mix until combined.
- Heat 12-inch nonstick pan on medium heat. Pour the batter and swirl the pan to make a crust form on the sides.
- When the bubbles begin to form, sprinkle some sugar on top to pop the air bubbles.
- Once the bubbles burst and leave behind holes, put a lid on top of the pan.
- Once it’s cooked through and the bottom of the pancake is evenly brown, transfer it to a cutting board and cut the martabak in half in half.
- Spread butter on the entire surface of the pancake, add chocolate sprinkle / grated chocolate / Nutella, grated cheese, crushed peanuts and sprinkle some condensed milk.
- Fold/sandwich the Martabak. Cut into 6 pieces. It’s ready to serve.
