Name: Pukis
Prep time: 90 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 10 gr flour; 4 gr instant yeast; 50 ml water (warm); 20 gr sugar; 165 ml coconut milk (thick); 100 gr sugar; ½ tsp salt; 165 ml milk; 80 ml condensed milk; 1 tbsp vanilla essence; 2 eggs; 3 egg yolk; 100 gr sugar; 300 gr flour; 125 gr unsalted butter (melted); Butter or margarine to brush; 2 tsp chocolate paste; 1-2 tbsp pandan extract; A few slices of cheddar cheese

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Pukis is a traditional Indonesian snack, made of fermented batter with coconut milk. The sphere cake is super soft and has spongy, fluffy texture that will make you fall in love at first bite. Made from a simple batter and mixed with chocolate or pandan, Pukis is a snack that’s hard to resist.

A plate of six pukis of different flavors lined up in front of a pan full of pukis.

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Indonesia has so many traditional snacks or dessert that are still very popular until now. One of them is pukis. It is a soft and plump cake made of fermented egg batter with coconut milk.

Long fermentation hour results in a very soft and fluffy cake with a nice honeycomb texture inside. This is what makes pukis a very popular street food.

There are other cakes that uses fermentation method similar to this one like Bika Ambon or Mini Pandan Bika Ambon. Malaysian Honeycomb Cake also has similar texture but the batter is not fermented. Putu Ayu Pandan Pastel Tutup

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Bouncy texture and delicious – Fermentation of yeast and coconut milk will create a wonderful texture and flavor that you will never find in other snack. You should really try this recipe and you will love it for sure!
Small sizes– The cakes come in small sizes and one batch can yield for up to 25 small pieces enough for the whole family.
Inexpensive – The ingredients are all very easy-to-get from any grocery store and very inexpensive.

Recipe Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Coconut Milk – use canned coconut milk, it is more practical. But if you have fresh coconut milk, you are welcome to use it.

Instant Yeast – Make sure your instant yeast is in good condition. If it is still good, the yeast mixture will be bubbly after 15 minutes.

Butter – You can use butter or margarine. The traditional recipe mostly use margarine. But I find that using butter is even better.

Flour – Use regular flour or all purpose flour.

Cornstarch – A little cornstarch will help make the cake fluffy.

Variations

You can be very creative with this pukis recipe. Take some of the vanilla butter and add other flavor like taro, pandan, chocolate. Or you can also add roasted peanuts, cheese slices or ham slices.

Just experiment and create many flavors out of the original batter. Start from chocolate, pandan, taro, or maybe red velvet. Just be creative and have your own pukis trademark!

Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below

How to Make:

Step by step process of preparing the yeast mixture and coconut milk mixture.

STEP 1. Mix all the ingredients for yeast mixture in a bowl. Stir well until the yeast, flour, and sugar dissolve (Images 1, 2). Cover with cling wrap and let it ferment for 15 minutes.

STEP 2. Mix all the ingredients for coconut milk mixture. Pour coconut milk, sugar, salt, condensed milk, and vanilla extract into a sauce pan (Images 3, 4, 5).

Step by step process of mixing the egg batter.

STEP 3. Put the sauce pan on the stove with low heat. Stir and let it simmer or until the sugar dissolves. Take it off the stove and let it cool for a while.

STEP 4. Put the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat with medium speed until the batter becomes pale and thick (Images 6, 7).

STEP 5. Sift flour and cornstarch into a bowl. Add a part of the sifted flour and cornstarch into the batter (Image 8). Whisk well.

Photo collage of mixing the yeast mixture and coconut milk mixture into the batter.

STEP 6. Then, add a part of the coconut milk mixture (Image 9). Whisk again. Do this until the sifted flour and the coconut milk mixture are all poured into the egg yolk batter.

STEP 7. The yeast mixture should be bubbly by now. Pour in the yeast mixture (Image 10). Whisk until well blended. Add the melted butter and whisk well (Image 11).

STEP 8. Now, you have the basic batter. Cover with a cling wrap or a cloth (Image 12). Let the batter ferment for 1-2 hours or until you can see the volume has doubled.

Photo collage of mixing the basic batter with chocolate and pandan extract.

STEP 9. After one or two hours of fermentation ( (Image 13), whisk the batter until the bubbles subside (Image 14).

STEP 10. Divide the batter into three. The amount is up to you. You can follow my guidance in the video. I separate 450-500 gr batter and make it into pandan batter with my homemade pandan extract. (Image 15). Take 150 gr and add chocolate paste or cocoa powder (Image 16). I will only drop some chocolate batter as an accent on top of the vanilla batter.

Photo collage of baking the batter using pukis mold.

STEP 11. If you don’t have a pukis mold, you can just use a pancake pan instead. Brush the mold with butter (Image 17). Heat the pukis mold on the stove until the mold is really hot. You can test it out by sprinkling some water in it. The water will sizzle if it is hot enough. Pour the batter into each hole until ¾ full (Image 18). Before pouring the batter, stir the batter first.

STEP 12. Cover the lid and let it bake for 5 minutes with medium heat or until the cake is plump enough (Image 19). Take out the cake and put them on a cooling rack. While still hot, brush with butter or margarine (Image 20). Finish baking the rest of the batter. Enjoy!

Serving

Serve this wonderful snack with a glass of traditional drink such as Wedang Jahe (Red Ginger Drink) or Lemongrass Pandan, Ginger Lemon, or Butterfly Pea Flower Tea. They are perfect when paired with Pukis.

Pro Tips

Always stir the batter before pouring into the mold.
The pukis mold has to be really hot before pouring the batter in. Otherwise, the cake will be sticky and hard to take out from the mold. And also the cake will not rise so well.
Make sure your yeast is in good condition. To know the yeast is in good condition is by checking the yeast mixture after 10-15 minutes. The mixture will be bubbly.

FAQs about Pukis

The pancake mold has to be very hot before you pour in the batter. The heat from the pan will make the batter rise enough so the cake will be plump on top.

Storage

This cake can only stay fresh for 2 days because it contains coconut milk. If you have some leftover, keep it in a closed container in the fridge. The next day, reheat with a pan or in a microwave.