Pumpkin Spice + Apple Sticky Balls

It’s probably a little too late in the season for this, but I have a sudden hankering for pumpkin spice and apples lately. Since it’s rainy season out here and winter in the northern hemisphere at the moment, I think it’s perfect to create a warm dish out of those ingredients. Being a girl who doesn’t really like fuss, I thought of making something quite simple and fuss-free, with ingredients that are mostly easily attainable locally.

So I thought why not put a twist on a traditional local dish? The initial recipe for this dish is from Bubur Candil, a warm traditional Javanese dessert. The twist here is to give the balls apple sauce filling and pumpkin spice in the porridge. Fancy a try at this recipe?

Ingredients

For the filling

• 4 medium-sized apples (456 gr)
• 8 tbsp. sugar
• 3 cloves
• 2 cm cinnamon

1. Cut up the apples into 4 pieces each and grate them
2. Transfer the grated apples (and all its liquid) into a frying pan and heat it up on a stove
3. Add in the cinnamon and cloves
4. When all the water has evaporated from the mixture, add in the sugar and mix well
5. Leave it to simmer while stirring occasionally, until the mixture stiffens into a paste
6. Let it cool while you prepare the balls

1. Fill half of a sauce pan with water and palm sugar, add in the pandan leaf and heat it up on maximum heat
2. In a bowl pour in the rice flour and add the water little by little
3. Fold and knead the rice flour while keep adding the water until the dough is rubbery and not sticking to the bowl
4. Take a pinch of the dough, spread it out wide on your palm and add the 1/2 tea spoon of filling in the middle of the dough
5. Enclose the filling by folding the dough and roll the mixture up into a ball
6. When the palm sugar has melted and dissolved into the water, put the balls into the sauce pan
7. Once the balls have floated on the surface, it is ready to be transferred into a separate bowl filled with water
8. In a separate container, mix the glutinous rice flour and water for the porridge until the flour dissolve
9. Add that to the palm sugar mixture along with the pumpkin spice, mix well
10. You may add the salt to compliment the taste of the sugar
11. Once the mixture has mixed well, return the balls back into the sauce pan
12. Bring the mixture to a boil then remove from heat
13. Serve with diluted coconut milk and enjoy!

Tips: As there are various types and sizes of apples, I put in the weight of the apples that I used. The type that I used was Apel Malang, which is a local selection—you can see how it looks like in the photo above. You can also simply blend the apples but they will lose their texture. Alternatively, you can use store-bought apple jam or sauce. The recipe for the filling here is way too much for the recipe of the balls, so if you want to use it again, keep it refrigerated.

For the balls, please be very careful when adding the water to the flour, lest the mixture should get too moist and liquidated. I’m not sure if “pumpkin spice powder” is even a thing, but here I used “spekoek seasonings,” which consists of pretty much the same thing. Otherwise, just add 1/4 tea spoon of grated cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Lass es euch schmecken!