This Pandan Jelly Dessert (Che Banh Lot) recipe features silky jelly served with crushed ice, palm sugar syrup and coconut sauce. The worm-shaped Pandan jelly is deliciously slippery with a slightly chewy texture making it a whole lot of fun to eat! A refreshing sweet treat, it’s especially thirst-quenching on a hot summer day. Traditionally served as a cold dessert soup (che), Pandan Jelly Dessert can also be enjoyed as a cool drink. Make this wonderful dessert to enjoy today!
Notes on the Pandan Jelly Dessert (Che Banh Lot) Recipe, Tips and Tricks
The main ingredient for the Pandan jelly is mung bean starch. Mung bean starch is a powdery, white starch made from mung beans. It’s commonly used to make bean thread noodle, also called cellophane or glass noodle. This starch has gelling properties making it a wonderful ingredient in vegetarian jellies. Purchase mung bean starch at an Asian grocer or online. In the stores, it’s stocked in the section with the flours and other starches.
You may find the worm-shaped jelly, short round strands with tapered ends, a bit unusual, but the shape is really intended to look like worms. To make the perfect jelly worms, the batter must have the right consistency-flowing slowly to create worms with tapered ends. The batter should be thick but still be able to fall in ribbons off the whisk.
Use a potato ricer to make the jelly. The one I have has 2 interchangeable plates and I am using the one with the larger holes.
Press gently on the potato ricer handle to extrude the jelly about 1 inch long. The warm jelly should automatically separate and drop into the ice bath. This natural oozing creates the tapered ends on the jelly.
Work quickly while the batter is warm and pliable. Once the batter gets cold, it won’t flow as needed and you’ll have to work to extrude the jelly. The jelly also gets lumpy when it cools. There’s about 3 batches of batter to run through the potato ricer. Extruding all the jelly should take less than 5 minutes.
If you don’t have a potato ricer, look for items in your kitchen with round holes about 1/4 inch in diameter. Use a spoon or spatula to push the jelly mixture through the holes to make the worms. Here are a few things to try:
- colander
- cheese grater
- skimmer or spoon
Alternatively, make the jelly with a piping bag. Use a round decorator’s tip or simply cut the end of the bag to size. Pipe the jelly worms and drop into the ice water.
Palm sugar has a natural sweet taste and lovely honey color. If you haven’t tried palm sugar syrup, here’s your chance. It’s delicious! Substitute palm sugar with brown sugar or brown slab sugar if not available.
Many Vietnamese cafes serve Pandan jelly with sugared red beans, mung bean paste, tropical fruits or faux pomegranate seeds to make assorted icy drinks. Try the Pandan jelly with your favorites to make more awesome dessert combinations!
Pandan Jelly Dessert / Che Banh Lot / Cendol / Lod Chong
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