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Steamed Pandan Tapioca Pearl Cakes

"This is a fun and delectable little dessert to impress your friends. This recipe utilizes many typical ingredients found in Thai desserts like tapioca pearls, coconut, and pandan."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and tapioca pearl work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 6 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Blend the chopped pandan leaves with the water set aside for pandan juice, then strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and discard the solids.

  2. Bring the remaining water to a boil in a saucepan. Stir in the tapioca pearls and cook over medium heat, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until most pearls look translucent.

  3. Stir in the sugar, salt and pandan juice until dissolved. Mix the tapioca flour with a splash of water to a smooth paste, stir it in, and cook 2 minutes until thickened.

  4. Pour the mixture into greased small cups or molds lined with a damp cloth or greased paper, filling each about three-quarters full.

  5. Set a steamer over boiling water. Steam the cakes, covered, for about 20 minutes until set and firm when pressed in the center.

  6. Meanwhile, toss the grated coconut with a pinch of the salt and steam it in a separate heatproof dish for about 10 minutes until warm and fragrant.

  7. Let the cakes cool for 5 minutes, then unmold and top each with a spoonful of the steamed coconut before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coconut + tapioca pearltop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tapioca pearl + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together89,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Coconut + pandantop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: vanillin (vanilla, sweet).

  5. Coconut + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 89,462 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pandan, tapioca pearl, sugar, flour):

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against pandan, tapioca pearl, sugar, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).