Pandan Waffles – Bánh Kẹp Lá Dứa

Whip up a batch of Vietnamese style Pandan Waffles in less than 15 minutes. Chewy, fluffy and a little bit crispy, these bright green waffles are filled with coconut and pandan flavours.

Why We Love This

Just like regular pancakes, these coconut pandan waffles are almost effortless to make, so you can enjoy a delicious hot breakfast without the fuss. Just add all your batter ingredients, give them a good mix, and you’re ready to pour and flip! No toppings required (unless you want to of course).

Recreate this classic Vietnamese street food treat right in your own kitchen. The sweet coconut and delicate pandan flavour really set these waffles apart from their everyday counterparts, not to mention their intriguing golden green colour!

Related: Serabi Kuah – Indonesian Coconut Pancakes / Poffertjes – Dutch Mini Pancakes

What are Pandan Waffles? 

Pandan waffles are a beloved street food snack in Vietnam, where they go by the name of Banh Kep La Dua. You’ll usually find them being cooked in waffle irons over hot coals, before being eaten by hand with no need for extra toppings.

They’re similar to regular waffles, except for a couple of key differences – they’re made with coconut milk instead of regular milk, and they’re flavoured with pandan extract, giving them an aromatic hit of flavour sometimes known as the ‘Vanilla of the East’.

When served in restaurants, you’ll usually find them smothered in ice cream and cream. Others also love to make it even sweeter by drizzling condensed milk over the top.

Fun fact: In Vietnamese, the word Bánh refers to any kind of cake or bread, so you’ll come across this word a lot in Vietnamese cuisine. It can refer to sweet and savoury dishes – such as Banh Xeo (Crispy Rice Flour Pancakes) to Vietnamese Pizza (Banh Trang Nuong).

What You’ll Need

This recipe calls for basic staple ingredients like self raising flour, butter, eggs and sugar, but there are also a couple of extra items you’ll need:

• Pandan – Some recipes call for fresh pandan extract, but to keep things simple we use the popular pasta pandan flavouring. It stores well, and is easy to find at Asian supermarkets or online. It’s a surprisingly versatile little ingredient which you can use for sweet treats like Klepon (Coconut Rice Cakes), Dadar Gulung (Rolled Pancakes) or Seri Muka (Steamed Layer Cake), or savoury dishes like Thai Pandan Chicken.
• Coconut Milk – We use canned coconut milk, but you can also use coconut cream which is just a bit thicker in texture. Both have a deliciously rich coconut flavour. Either way, we recommend buying unsweetened so that you can control the sweetness levels yourself.

How to make at home:

To make the batter:

1. Add the self raising flour, sugar, cornstarch, coconut milk and regular milk into a bowl and give everything a good stir.
2. Then add the egg, vanilla essence, pandan flavouring and melted butter and stir until combined. The batter should be nice and thick.

To cook the waffles:

3. Set the waffle maker to medium high heat, or place your waffle iron on the stove over a medium high heat. Spray with cooking oil spray or baste with butter or oil.
4. Pour in enough batter to cover the base iron plate, then immediately close the lid and flip over to make sure the batter is evenly distributed.
5. Cook for 3-4 minutes each side, then check to make sure the waffle is cooked to your desired level of crispiness.

Wandercook’s Tips

• For the best waffle shape, pour in the batter and really make sure it covers the entire bottom plate. Then immediately flip the waffle iron. This is important as it will make sure the batter coats the entire iron on both sides and your waffle won’t turn out flat or lumpy on one side. We love using our electric waffle maker which has it’s own stand so you can flip the waffles with a twist of the handle.
• Cooking spray is the easiest way to oil the waffle iron, but you can also baste with oil or butter if you prefer. Either way, make sure to oil both the top and bottom irons to stop the batter from sticking. Do this between every waffle.
• We recommend serving with drizzles of condensed milk, which is a thick sweet syrup that goes perfectly with waffles! Condensed milk is usually sweetened, so you don’t need to use much.

FAQs

Variations & Substitutes

• For extra texture, you can add a 1/2 cup of coconut flakes to the batter.
• If using all purpose flour / plain flour instead of self raising flour, add in 1 tsp of baking powder for every 1 cup of flour.
• Cornstarch can be substituted with tapioca starch or rice flour.
• You can flavour the waffle batter with pandan extract (normally a clear liquid), pandan flavouring (a green paste) or pandan juice made from fresh or frozen pandan leaves that are blended with water and then strained.
• If you don’t have pandan flavouring, you can leave it out. Just add an extra tsp of vanilla essence.
• If you really enjoy the colour and flavour of pandan, you can double the amount of pandan flavouring in this recipe.

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