On holidays in Sri Lanka a couple of years ago, I got hooked on these coconut pancake snacks sold by a street vendor near our hotel. The grated coconut filling was mixed with syrup made from the sap of the local kithul palm and scented with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. It sounds heady, but the sweetness and spice were beautifully balanced by the soft, thick crêpes.
I’ve combined palm sugar and dark muscovado sugar here to approximate the kithul syrup and added a simple coconut sauce to spoon over if serving as dessert. The recipe looks long, I know, but each step is very easy. Ingredients 60ml water 60g palm sugar, chopped 60g dark muscovado sugar 1 cinnamon stick 2 cloves seeds from 2 green cardamom pods, finely ground 150g desiccated coconut 1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt 135g plain flour 1 tbsp caster sugar 1⁄4 tsp ground turmeric 1⁄4 tsp baking powder 1⁄4 tsp fine sea salt 2 large eggs 200ml coconut milk (from 1 x 400ml tin), 200ml reserved 150ml water 1 tbsp sunflower (or other flavourless) oil, plus 1 tbsp extra for cooking the crêpes 200ml coconut milk 15g palm sugar, roughly chopped 15g dark muscovado sugar 11⁄2 tsp tapioca flour (or cornflour) pinch of fine sea salt Method Begin by making the coconut filling.
Combine the water, sugars, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom in a medium saucepan and place over low heat. Stir until the sugars have dissolved, then add the coconut and salt. Stir gently until the coconut absorbs all the brown syrup and looks moist a.