Indonesia Sweet Pancake aka Martabak Manis Challenge 1

Being one of the most popular Indonesia snack especially sold around night-time, you can find a lot of street vendors sell this dish practically everywhere. There are some variations of martabak manis in term of the texture, some are more chewy and others are softer. you could literally any fillings to your liking for martabak, some common fillings are chocolate rices, grated cheddar cheese, toasted sesame seeds, chopped roasted peanuts, and some more expensive options even have choices of kit kat, nutella, or toblerone chocolate bar.

Here in Sydney, there are a few good sellers of martabak manis nowadays but boy, there are not cheap! So, why not try to make it myself? 🙂

A key indicator of successful martabak is the porous texture like below picture (credit to www.martabakspektaluker.com).

There are many claims on how to achieve such texture, from using baking soda, yeast, right timing and heat, using the right pan, etc. As for my first attempt few years ago, I used this recipe and it didn’t come out as expected, so I can say it was a failure, more like a regular pancake texture. I have never gone back to this recipe again, but many people claims that they achieve the successful martabak with this recipe. So readers, if you’d like to give this recipe a go, please do let me know how it goes.

Here is the recipe (source here):

• 500 grams flour
• 750 ml water
• 1 egg
• 50 grams sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine all ingredients together, except baking soda. Mix with a balloon whisk until all combined well and no lumps. Let it sit for about 1 hour.

After an hour, heat up martabak pan (I used regular non-stick pan). When the pan is hot, add the baking soda into pancake batter, mix well again. Pour in the batter to fill up half the pan, and cook it until the surface shows bubbles and become porous, then sprinkle some sugar, cover with a lid. Once batter is fully cooked, release from the pan, spread some butter on top then add any fillings you like and fold into a half circle.

Now, how did mine look like? I couldn’t remember where I have kept the pictures or might be even didn’t take the picture because they turned out so bad, after all it was probably about 4 years ago 😀 Stay tuned for my updated post on the next Martabak Manis Challenge.