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Coconut Milk Agar Jelly
Easy agar-agar jelly dessert using coconut milk, coconut water, and agar powder. Serve with delicious coconut palm sugar syrup infused with pandan leaves.
The weather is getting warmer, and it is time to make cold dessert again. This time let’s make this super easy coconut milk agar jelly, along with the accompanying palm sugar syrup.
This dessert is completely vegan and gluten-free as well, so it is always a nice one to prepare when you expect company.
What do I need to make coconut milk agar jelly?
You will need coconut milk, coconut water, agar-agar powder, and sugar.
For agar-agar powder, I either use Indonesian plain agar-agar powder from Swallow Globe brand, or Now Food agar-agar powder.
Making coconut agar-agar.
First, stir together coconut milk, coconut water (or water), agar-agar powder, and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and keep stirring with a whisk until all the sugar and agar-agar powder has completely dissolved.
Then, turn off heat, and pour into mold(s). Place in the fridge to set the agar-agar jelly completely.
Note: Please don’t boil the coconut milk and agar-agar mixture with high heat. Doing so may cause your coconut agar-agar to split into two layers, one white layer on top, and one clear layer on the bottom. Unless that’s what you want of course, which is also totally fine and the two layers agar-agar look quite pretty too.
This particular recipe will yield about 3 cups worth of agar-agar, so these should work well as your agar-agar molds:
- a loaf pan, an 8"x4" loaf pan will work nicely for this particular recipe
- about four 6 ounce ramekins/custard cups if filled to the brim
- silicone baking cups, you’ll need about 12 of these
- ice cube trays, which is what I use in the photo
- any pretty mold that you’ll use for your jello/gelatin dessert
What do I need for the palm sugar syrup
You will need palm sugar (Indonesian: gula Jawa)/coconut sugar/dark brown sugar, water, pandan leaf, and salt.
To make the palm sugar syrup, boil together all syrup ingredients. Turn off the heat once all the sugar has completely dissolved. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes, discard pandan leaf.
To serve, simply remove coconut milk agar-agar jelly from the mold(s), arrange on a serving plate and serve with the palm sugar syrup.
Coconut Milk Agar Jelly
Ingredients
- Coconut milk agar jelly
- 1 can (400 ml) coconut milk
- 350 ml coconut water (or water)
- 7 gram (2 teaspoon) agar-agar powder (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup (100 gram) sugar
- Palm sugar syrup
- 50 gram palm sugar
- 50 ml water
- 1 pandan leaf, knotted
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- Coconut milk agar jelly
- Stir together coconut milk, coconut water (or water), agar-agar powder, and sugar in a pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and keep stirring with a whisk until all the sugar and agar-agar powder has completely dissolved. (Note 2)
- Turn off heat, and pour into mold(s). Place in the fridge to set the agar-agar jelly completely. (Note 3)
- Palm sugar syrup
- Boil together all syrup ingredients. Once all the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat off.
- Set the pot aside to cool for 15 minutes, then discard the pandan leaf.
- To serve
- Remove coconut milk agar jelly from the mold(s), arrange on a serving plate, and serve with the palm sugar syrup.
Notes
- (1) Or use plain unflavored Swallow Globe brand agar-agar powder.
- (2) Please don’t boil the coconut milk and agar-agar mixture with high heat. Doing so may cause your coconut agar-agar to split into two layers, one white layer on top, and one clear layer on the bottom. Unless that’s what you want of course, which is also totally fine and the two layers agar-agar look quite pretty too.
- (3) You may use an 8"x4" loaf pan, four 6-oz ramekins/custard cups, 12 silicone standard-size muffin cups, ice cube trays, or any jello/gelatine mold.
Comments
Hi Anita, just wonder about coconut water. Is it from fresh coconut ( which is we have to crack from coconut's shell ) or buy in supermarket drinking coconut water in packaging. Thank you for your advise
Hi Fung, both is okay. If you can get your hand on a fresh coconut and get the water that way, that would be awesome. But if you can only get packaged coconut water, that is also okay. :)
Hi! How many agar agar I can make from this recipe? Thanks
Um... depends on your mold. If you want to make just one big agar-agar, make sure it can hold 3 cups liquid. For example, if you use a 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan, it will fill about half-way. If you want to use ramekins, you will end up with four (or five) 6 oz. ramekins worth of agar-agar.
I've been making coconut milk jellies for a long time this recipe is just about perfect! It makes a firm pudding without it being crunchy. I did add a little cardamom powder and a tiny bit of cinnamon to the coconut layer and made a chocolate layer. Your recipe is spot on! Thank you!
Ooo, the cardamom powder addition sounds divine. I will want to give it a try for sure. And wow, you made another layer with chocolate! Your pudding must be awesomely delicious.
Hi Anita, my coconut milk agar agar separates into 2 layers after set. Clear & milky. Any idea why is it so?
Hi Marg, it's due to boiling the coconut milk with a heat that is too high. For higher insurance that the agar won't separate into two distinct layers, you can also boil the agar first without adding any coconut milk, then once it boils, reduce the heat to a bare simmering and add the coconut milk and stir until well mixed. Then turn the heat off and pour into mould(s).
This is a simple to make but delcious dessert. I'll definitely be making it again. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks fantastic! Love that it only requires a few ingredients too.
Lovely dessert for a lovely party. So easy and quick to make. Looks super yum and mouth melting too.
This sounds like such an interesting dessert recipe!
Can I use gelatin instead of agar?
I am certain you can, but I haven't tried it myself, so I'm not sure the amount of gelatin powder you will need to make it set. The typical recommended amount is 1 tablespoon to 2 cups of liquid, so I would assume you will need 1 2/3 tablespoon (or 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoon) of gelatin powder for this recipe.
Hi, I was wondering if you wait for a while for the liquid to cool off in the mould before putting it in the refrigerator, or do you put it in right away? I've always thought one mustn't put hot foods/liquids directly into the fridge.
Hi Revanta, you can put it immediately in the fridge, especially if you want the agar-agar to set as quickly as possible. Or, you can let it cool on the kitchen countertop for 10-15minutes before putting it in the fridge. Both methods are okay, so feel free to choose whichever one you are comfortable with.
How many hours will this take to set?
Hi Alrette, it should start setting around 30 minutes. I usually let it rest for 1 hour just to be on the safe side.
How can I substitute liquid pan-dan for the pan-dan leaf?
Hi Lynda, you can try using 1/2 teaspoon of store-bought pandan extract instead of using pandan leaf. You can also simply omit the pandan and it shouldn't affect the flavor of the syrup too much. :)
Thanks Anita , i have some 45 g agar agar strips .. how much water to add instead of agar agar powder ? thanks
Hi Nyat Chin, as far as I know, each brand of agar-agar strips will have its own instruction printed on the packaging. Since this recipe uses 3 cups (750 ml) of liquid total, you can check the instruction for your agar-agar strip how many gram you will need to mix with 3 cups of liquid. I hope this makes sense.
Hi Anita, the Swallow Globe Brand Agar power turned brown as soon as it touches the water. (So my jelly is brownish colour) Has this happened to you? Do you know why?
Hi Susie, Swallow agar comes in a variety of flavor, and one of them is chocolate. I think you might have accidentally use the chocolate flavor version instead of the plain. The non-plain version usually has an indicator on the upper left corner saying something like "warna cokelat", while the plain version will have no color indicator at all.
Hi! This was so good but it had a slightly grainy texture. Does that mean I didn't give the agar agar enough time to dissolve (I used powdered).
Hi Anna, it sounds like you didn't cook the agar enough. Did you make sure to add the agar powder while the liquid is boiling and continue stirring until everything is dissolved and fully incorporated?
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