Icy desserts can be a heavenly indulgence, especially during these difficult times when people need to constantly stay at home. Ice creams are nice, but do you know what’s even better? Traditional Indonesian icy desserts! Rich in flavor and easy to make, these desserts are a must-try for everyone who loves Indonesian food. The splendid taste of these refreshing desserts will inspire you to travel to Indonesia but for now #Stayathome; #TravelTomorrow.
1 | Sop Buah

Literally translated as ‘fruit soup’, Sop Buah is a dessert consisting of tropical fruits in a bowl of condensed milk and its taste is a unique combination of the freshness, the sweetness, and the natural sourness of fruits. This dessert is sold in almost every street of Indonesia, especially in big cities or warmer regions. Sop Buah is traditionally eaten to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, but you can make it at home and have it anytime you want because the ingredients are easily available at your nearest store. Plus, it’s so versatile that you can make your own variations.
Fruit Ingredients (you can adjust with any fruits):
Avocado, as desired
Watermelon, diced
Strawberry, cut it into 4
Pineapple, cut into small triangles
Melons, make a circle like a marble
Longan, remove the seeds
Papaya, diced
Mango, diced
Grape, halve 
Soup Ingredients:
1 glass of boiled water
5 tablespoons of coco pandan syrup
1 sachet of white sweetened condensed milk
Shaved ice
 
How to Make:
Put all the fruit ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Blend a glass of boiled water with condensed milk; then stir well and pour it into the bowl of fruits. Add some shaved ice and pour the coco pandan syrup over it. Sop Buah is ready to be served.
 
2 | Es Doger

Es Doger is a popular street food dessert of Indonesia that’s sold mostly in cities and warmer regions. It’s made of shaved ice, coconut milk, coco pandan syrup, fermented sticky rice, and fermented cassava. This dessert is popular in Bandung, West Java, but not many people know that it actually comes from Cirebon. Its name is derived from ‘es dorong gerobak’, which literally translates as ‘carousel-pushed ice.’ Basically, this dessert is coconut shaved ice, so if you can’t find an ingredient of this recipe, you can simply substitute with anything that contains coconut in it.
Ingredients:
200 ml Liquid Coconut Milk
150 grams of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of red food coloring 
Filling:
75 gram black/green fermented sticky rice
50 gram fermented cassava
50 grams of coconut meat
Sweetened condensed milk to taste 
How to Make:
Add coconut milk and sugar to the pan, and heat until it’s about to boil. Then, add food coloring while continuing to stir. Once it starts to bubble, transfer the liquid to a container and refrigerate until it freezes (for approximately 6-8 hours). Take the frozen liquid out of the fridge and defrost for about 10-15 minutes until the ice becomes ready to be dredged. Arrange the fillings in a serving glass and then dredge the frozen liquid into the glass. Add sweetened condensed milk and sprinkles of beans.
 
3 | Es Cendol

The green chewy bites and the refreshing sweet ice of Es Cendol, a popular dessert of Indonesia, are hard to resist. This dessert, which originates from West Java, mainly consists of shaved ice, coconut milk, and palm sugar topped with ‘cendol’ (a long and chewy topping made of mung bean starch and cornstarch). There is another dessert called “Dawet” that’s similar to Es Cendol. The only difference is that Es Cendol uses mung bean starch and cornstarch while Dawet uses tapioca starch and rice flour. Whichever of these two desserts you make, the ingredients are very easy to find.
Cendol Ingredients:
80 gram of fresh/frozen pandan leaves
50 gram of mung bean starch
50 gram of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of lye water 
Beverage Ingredients:
200 grams of palm sugar syrup
2-3 knots of fresh/frozen pandan leaves
400 ml of coconut milk
A pinch of salt
Shaved ice 
How to Make:
Cendol: Take some ice-cold drinking water in a pot and place a steamer basket over it. Put aside. Put all the ingredients for cendol in another small pot and stir well. Set the pan over medium heat. Stir continuously until it thickens into a paste. Turn the heat low, stir for another 5 minutes. When the paste begins to feel stiff, transfer it to the prepared steamer basket. Apply pressure to the paste and push it through the steamer basket’s holes. Make sure all the paste floats in the ice-cold water inside the pot and hardens instantly. Set aside for at least 1 hour to get more firm texture.
Beverage: Take a glass and fill half of it with crushed/shaved ice. Top it with cendol/dawet, and add some coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. Serve immediately.
 
4 | Es Teler

Although not traditional, Es Teler is a dessert that represents the authentic flavor of Indonesia through its ingredients. The recipe of this dessert, which mainly consists of avocado, jackfruit, and coconut dipped in a mixture of fruit syrup and condensed milk, was created in 1957 by Hj. Samijem Darmo Putro of Sukoharjo, Central Java. The name itself comes from one of the customer’s remarks, who said, “esnya bikin teler” (the ice tasted overwhelmingly delicious). Es Teler is sold by many street hawkers and restaurants in Indonesia.
Ingredients:
A can of jackfruit
A can of young coconut meat
2 avocados
Condensed milk to taste
Shaved ice
2 tablespoon of coco pandan syrup 
How to Make:
Cut each avocado into two pieces. Remove the pit. Scoop out all the meat with a spoon. Put aside. Put the jackfruit, coconut meat, and avocado meat in a glass. Add cocopandan syrup before filling the glass with shaved ice. Top it with condensed milk and serve.
 
5 | Es Palu Butung

Es Palu Butung is a typical dessert originating from South Sulawesi and is often consumed to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan. The name comes from South Sulawesi’s Makassar language. It literally translates as ‘cooked banana ice.’ This dessert consists of saba bananas (a kind of banana that has a firm texture) and a sweet ‘broth’ made from coconut milk and pandan juice. The main ingredient, saba banana is sold mostly in North-American and European countries, but you can use any kind of firm banana that’s bigger than the typical banana you eat before working out.
Ingredients:
50 g of rice flour
400 ml of coconut milk 
200 ml of water 
3 knots of pandan leaves
70 g of granulated sugar
¼ tsp of vanilla
¼ tsp of salt
8 ripe saba bananas, steamed, peeled, and cut into pieces.
red color syrup
ice cubes 
How to Make:
Blend the coconut milk and water, and dilute the rice flour with some parts of this coconut milk mixture. Chop one and a half of pandan leaves and shred the rest of them into tiny pieces. Take a small pan and heat the remaining coconut milk with chopped pandan leaves. Then, take half a cup of the warm coconut milk and blend it with the shredded pandan leaves. Squeeze the mixture to get pandan juice and put the juice in the pan. Add sugar, vanilla, and salt, and bring to a boil. Add the rice flour mixture to the coconut milk mixture. Stir well. Finally, pour rice flour porridge on the bananas and drizzle some red syrup on top before adding some ice cubes. Serve and enjoy.
 
Sweet! Now you have so many signature Indonesian dessert recipes to recreate in your kitchen. Now relax, indulge, and refresh yourself with the flavors of the archipelago. Make sure to put these desserts on your bucket list so that you can savor the sweetness when it becomes safer to travel. But for now, stay at home; travel tomorrow.
 
 
 

Follow iseeindonesia.com for more travel inspiration inside Indonesia!