Vegan Martabak Manis - Indonesian Sweet Stuffed Pancake

I seldom blog desserts but today I am blogging about veganizing Martabak Manis which is a popular Indonesian street food sweet snack/dessert.  I can translate it to English as Indonesian Sweet Stuffed Pancake.  In Indonesia it is called Martabak Manis, Martabak Bangka, or Kue Terang Bulan.  Terang Bulan is translated to English as full moon and kue means cake.    It is going to be a Super Full Moon  2012 or perigee moon of 2012 tonight (check out the bright full moon tonight) which means that the moon will be 14% larger and 30% brighter than any other full moons in 2012.  This is the reason why I veganized this snack today.

I called it pancake but it is a snack or dessert instead of a breakfast food.  Indonesians do not eat pancake in the morning, we eat it for snacks and buy it on the side of the road like how it is served as street food in this youtube video: The Making of Sweet Martabak   The video comes with the background noise of cars, motorcycles, horns honking, customers talking, etc.  It's hilarious and so real!   In the video the pancake is a large round like a full moon.  Then, fillings are added, pancake folded into half moon and cut into pieces.  It has been years since I buy street food snacks like this.  This video really brought a lot of childhood memories.

In the youtube video there are a large amount of fat (butter or margarine) that was added on top of the pancake.  This dish is not for those who are on a diet to lose weight.  It is full of fat, sugar, and eggs.   I cut down the fat by not using THAT much fat and veganized it with no eggs.  The pancake I made is also thinner because eggs were not used.  The thinner pancake does not absorb too much fat.  I also replace some of the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour.  I haven't tried it with all whole wheat pastry flour yet but I don't see any reason why it should fail.  You can see that I am trying really hard to make this snack healthier without sacrificing the flavor. 

In the youtube video, processed cheese was also added as a filling as a savory pancake.  It is unhealthy to eat processed cheese, in my opinion.   I decided not to do that nor to try to find a substitution for it.  Maybe someday I'll blog about a savory martabak, a different kind of Indonesian street food.

Every martabak manis recipe I found in the Internet uses eggs.  I replaced the eggs with EnerG Egg Replacer.  This is also a yeast pancake batter.  After the yeast is added, the batter needs to be proofed such as in proofing yeast bread.  All you need in proofing  is about 1 hour of warm temperature area in your kitchen (oven with the light on should do it) to let the yeast works its magic.

I prepared some vegan fillings/toppings for the pancake (from top left clockwise):  vegan chocolate sauce, chopped salted nuts, chopped roasted hazelnuts, and vegan Dutch chocolate sprinkles (De Ruijter brand) and vegan dulce de leche (Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe or video).

 

Vegan Martabak Manis (Indonesian Sweet Stuffed Pancake)
Makes 3 large pancakes


Batter ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
 Note:  you can use 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour and not use the whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups warm non-dairy milk (can be soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, or coconut milk)
1 tablespoon dry yeast (about 1 pkg dry yeast)
3 1/2 tablespoons vegan sugar, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 drop of yellow food coloring (an optional)

Eggs replacement ingredients:
1 tablespoon EnerG Egg Replacer
4 tablespoons water

1/4 cup vegan butter or soy margarine, melted
cooking brush

Vegan Chocolate Sauce ingredients:
Any other kind of  vegan chocolate sauce can be used as a filling or make this one.  This can be made ahead of time.

1 can (15 oz) coconut milk
1 cup and 2 tablespoons vegan powdered sugar
3 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa powder

1.  Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder together with a fine sifter.
2. Mix coconut milk and sifted sugar and cocoa powders in a medium sauce pan.  Stir well to combine.
3. Heat it up in a medium heat until mixture starts to boil.  Lower the heat to low and let it simmer in 25-30 minutes until it is thickened.  The mixture should resemble a condensed milk or gravy.  Let it cool.

Other fillings/toppings:
Any or all of the topping below are great.  I usually combine chocolate sauce above+chopped peanuts for 1 pancake and dulce de leche+chocolate sprinkles+chopped hazelnuts on another pancake.  Sesame seeds, pistachio nuts, almonds, walnuts are also great toppings.
 
1/4 cup chopped salted nuts
1/4 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup dutch chocolate sprinkles
1/4 cup vegan dulce de leche (I followed Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe)

Preparing the batter:

1. Warm milk to 120 degrees F.  Pour about 1/2 cup of the warm milk on top of 1 tablespoon dry yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar  in a large bowl.  Mix and let the yeast works itself into frothy mixture (waking up the yeast).  This takes about 5 minutes.
2. Mix the flours, the rest of the sugar (2 1/2 tablespoons), baking powder, salt.  Combine well with a whisk.
3. Pour the rest of the warm milk into the yeast, milk, and sugar mixture.  Then, add the flour mixture (step 2) and combine well.  Yeast should start to work and creates bubbles.  Cover and let this mixture sit in a warm temperature area about 1 hour.  See the picture below.
4. About 10 minutes near the end of proofing the batter process, combine the EnerG egg replacer with water(egg replacement ingredients) in a small bowl.  Using a hand blender with the top speed, mix and blend the water and egg replacer until it is frothy and soft peaks formed.  It usually takes at least 6 minutes.
5. Gently fold the foamy egg replacer into the pancake batter. At this time, I added 1 drop of yellow food coloring.  Mix well.
6.  The batter should be foamy and light.  The consistency should be similar to a pancake batter.

Making the pancake:
The best tool to make the pancake is an 8-inch or 9-inch cast iron frying pan with a lid.

1. Heat the cast iron pan on a medium high heat until really hot (wait about 2-3 minutes).  Use a cooking brush to brush a generous amount of melted vegan butter all over and around the frying pan.
2. Pour 1/3 of the batter  onto the frying pan.  It should sizzle (if it doesn't, that means that the frying pan is not hot enough).  Traditionally, martabak manis has a round crisp edges.  To do this, tilt the frying pan and let the batter runs around the frying pan to create the edges such as in this picture above.
3. Immediately, turn the heat to LOW.
4. Once the batter is bubbling and the top looks firm.  Cover with a lid and set a timer for 10 minutes. Note:  it is important to cover with a lid to let the pancake cooked and the bottom crispy.
5. After 10 minutes, the bottom of the pancake should be brown and crispy and the middle of the pancake is cooked.  If the bottom is burned that means the heat is too high or too strong.  If the pancake is not cooked, that means that the heat is too low.  The key in making the pancake correctly  is the amount of heat and everyone's stove is different unfortunately.
6. Lift the pancake with a spatula or a pancake turner onto a cutting board.  Brush some melted vegan butter on top (this is optional).  Pour some chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped nuts.  OR pour some dulce de leche, sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles and top with chopped hazelnuts.
7. Fold the pancake into half (look like a half moon).  Cut into 4 to 5 pieces.  Serve warm. Continue making the rest of the batter.  Use a different combination of toppings/fillings each time.

Enjoy the vegan martabak manis and super full moon 2012 or any full moon!