This pandan milk is a perfect choice for those who are looking for non-caffeinated bubble tea drink. Its a refreshing and creamy beverage that combines the subtle sweetness of milk with the fragrant and slightly nutty taste of pandan in the form of syrup and chewy jelly strips. The recipe is incredibly easy to make and is perfect for a quick and delicious treat at any time of day.
While you are here, you might also want to check out my pandan milk tea recipe, grass jelly drink and grass jelly milk tea. They make great variation to the typical tapioca pearls based bubble teas.
Jump to:
❤️Why you will love this recipe
- It's easy to make, you only need 6 simple ingredients - pandan syrup, pandan leaves, sugar, milk, konnyaku jelly and water.
- This is not a tea or coffee based drink hence there is no caffeine and is a great alternative to regular milk tea bubble drinks.
- Made with fresh pandan leaves and homemade pandan syrup
- It's delicious and you will simply love it!
📋Ingredients
- Milk - Whole milk is recommended for a lovely creamy drink. You can use fresh milk or make from powdered milk if you have ran out of fresh milk.
- Pandan syrup - This is homemade simple syrup flavored with fresh pandan juice.
- Konnyaku powder (or agar agar powder) - Konnyaku jelly has a more chewy texture compared to agar agar powder and recommended.
- Sugar - white coarse sugar or granulated sugar.
- Fresh pandan leaves - to color the jelly as well as to add flavor to it.
- Water - to make the jelly
*Refer to the recipe card below for exact quantities of the ingredients above. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and variations
- Milk - can be substituted with skimmed milk or almond milk or oat milk. You can also replace milk with fresh soy milk for a pandan soy milk drink.
- Pandan syrup - this can be substituted with simple syrup, but do not that you will be losing out on the pandan flavor from the pandan juice in the homemade pandan syrup. To compensate, you can add some pandan extract into the simple syrup or the milk. This might make your milk green from the color in the pandan extract. Other sweetener options are brown sugar, white sugar.
- Konnyaku jelly powder - can be substituted with agar agar powder. Replace with exact same quantity.
- Fresh pandan leaves - if you are unable to find fresh leaves, replace with frozen ones.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🏻🍳How to make
Making the pandan boba
Pandan jelly requires time to set (at least 30 minutes) hence it is best prepared first.
- Start by making your own pandan juice. Wash and pat the pandan leaves dry. Cut them into 1 inch strips and place them in a food processor.
- Add 100ml of the water mentioned in the recipe and process the leaves until fine.
- Strain the pandan juice in a cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the leaves and discard the pulp.
- Pour the pandan juice into a measuring jug. Top it up with water until it reaches 500ml (the amount of water indicated in the recipe). Pour the pandan water into a small saucepan. Turn on the flame to low heat.
- In a small bowl, measure the sugar. Add the konnyaku powder and stir to mix the sugar and the powder. This is an important step in making konnyaku jelly. Mixing with the sugar helps disperse the powder and this will avoid it from clumping when added to the hot water.
- Add the sugar mix into the pandan juice. Stir well.
- Let the jelly cook over medium heat for approximately 7 to 8 minutes, until the sugar and the jelly is completely dissolved.
- Turn off the heat and pour it into an 8 inches square mold. I use my cake tin and you can use any other mold you like. Since the jelly will be cut into tiny cubes, the mold size or shape does not matter. For easy cutting, it is best that the jelly is poured into a square or rectangle container, but this is not a must.
Unmolding and cutting the jelly
- Let the jelly set at room temperature or in the fridge until completely set. It sets faster as it cools down, so if you want it to set quicker, place it in the fridge.
- Also, if you pour the jelly into a small mold, it will be thicker and therefore require a longer time to set.
- To check if the jelly is set, press it lightly with your finger. It should be firm when touched. If is is still soft or appears wobbly when you shake the mold, it is not set and should be allowed more time to set.
- Once set, remove it from the mold. To do this, run a thin spatula all over the sides of the mold, pushing the jelly slightly away from the mold to release it.
- Place a large plate or cutting board over the mold.
- Holding both together intactly, turn the mold over. Tap it lightly to release onto the plate.
- Cut into thin strips. Chill until ready to assemble.
Assembling the pandan milk
- Add the pandan jelly strips into drinking glass.
- Pour in the pandan syrup.
- Top with ice cubes.
- Finally, pour the milk in and serve.
🍽️Serving & storage
- The pandan milk, once assembled, is best consumed with the same day. If not consumed immediately, keep it refrigerated. Leaving the milk at room temperature will spoil it within a few hours.
- The pandan jelly on its own can last for a good 4 to 5 days. Similarly the milk. Hence, it is best to make this pandan milk right before serving. Keep all the ingredients chilled in the fridge to enjoy a perfectly chilled pandan milk.
💡Expert tips
- Homemade pandan syrup does not any color to the milk. If you prefer to make the pandan milk green, add some pandan extract or green food coloring.
- To serve the milk warm, omit the ice cubes and warm milk slightly before assembling.
- Ice cubes will dilute the milk, hence it is better to use chilled milk when making the pandan milk to avoid from having to use too many ice cubes.
💭FAQs
Pandan (also known as screwpine in English) is a tropical plant with long green blade like leaves that grows mostly in Southeast Asia. The leaves are light green when young and get to dark green color as they get older.
Pandan is well known for its aroma and flavor. Pandan flavor is often referred to as the vanilla of the East. It is fragrant and widely used in both sweet and savory dishes as well as in beverages. You can find pandan leaf in Asian supermarket. It is sold both fresh and frozen.
It's creamy and sweet, with a lovely grassy vanilla aroma.
As mentioned above, before you turn the jelly over onto a cutting board or plate, run a spatula along its sides to loosen it from the sides of the mold. Turn the mold over and tap it lightly to release the jelly.
If it still does not release, lift the mold slightly and push a corner of the jelly away from the sides of the mold with your finger while still holding the mold upside down. As soon as the jelly loosens slightly from the bottom of the bottom, it will release onto the plate easily.
If this method is also not working for you, simply cut out a section of the jelly in the mold itself. Use a spoon to remove it and then try turning out the remaining jelly onto a plate.
Some people prefer to cut it directly and completely in the mold itself, without turning it out, but I do not prefer that option as it often leave knife marks on my tins.
❤️More recipes you will love ❤️
Do you like this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐rating in the recipe card below and consider a review further down this page. I would love to hear from you. Thank you!
📖Recipe
Pandan Milk
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
Milk
- 1 liter milk
- 180 ml pandan syrup
Pandan Jelly
- 5 g konnyaku jelly powder
- 500 ml water
- 100 g sugar
- 2 pandan leaves (30 cm each)
Instructions
Making the pandan jelly
- Wash and pat the pandan leaves dry. Cut them into 1 inch strips.
- Place the cut pandan leaves into a food processor. Add 100ml water and process them until fine.
- Strain the processed leaves to extract the juice. Use a cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer to ensure all the pulp is strained out. Squeeze the pulp to remove all the juice and discard the pulp.
- Measure the pandan juice in a jug. Top it with water until it reaches 500ml.
- Pour the pandan juice into a medium sized pot. Turn on the heat to medium low.
- In a separate small bowl, measure the sugar. Add the jelly powder to it and mix well. Mixing well will avoid the jelly powder from clumping when added into the pandan water.
- Add the sugar-jelly powder mix into the pandan water. Stir to mix.
- Let the jelly cook until the sugar and the jelly powder is completely dissolved. THis should take approximately 7 to 8 minutes.
- Once cooked, pour the jelly into an 8 inches square mold. Let is set completely at room temperature or in the fridge. The jelly will set quicker as it cools down.
- Once completely firm, remove the jelly into a cutting board. To release the jelly from the mold, run a thin spatula along the sides of the tin. Place the cutting board over the mold and holding both intact, turn the mold over. Tap it lightly to release the jelly.
- Cut the jelly into thin strips. Chill under ready to assemble the pandan milk.
Assembling the pandan milk
- Divide the pandan jelly strips into 4 drinking glasses.
- Add 3 tablespoons of pandan syrup into each glass.
- Top the jelly and syrup with ice cubes.
- Finally, pour in the milk and serve.
Notes
- Homemade pandan syrup does not any color to the milk. If you prefer to make the pandan milk green, add some pandan extract or green food coloring.
- To serve the milk warm, omit the ice cubes and warm milk slightly before assembling.
- Ice cubes will dilute the milk, hence it is better to use chilled milk when making the pandan milk to avoid from having to use too many ice cubes.
Leave a Reply