Kue putu is a steamed cylindrical cake of coarse rice flour packed loosely into a little bamboo tube around a core of shaved palm sugar, then set over a steamer whose escaping steam makes the vendor's cart whistle. As it steams, the rice sets to a soft crumb and the palm sugar melts to a molten centre; pushed out of the tube and rolled in fresh grated coconut, it is served warm and green, scented with pandan. The whistling steam-cart is so distinctive that the sound alone announces the seller.
Kue putu belongs to a family of steamed ground-rice cakes found across Indonesia and the wider Malay world, where related putu sweets are made in moulds or tubes; the bamboo-tube, palm-sugar-cored form is the well-known Indonesian street version. It is a traditional jajanan pasar with no single dated origin, sold for generations from carts whose steam whistle is its signature. The name putu is shared with related cakes across the region, but the precise history of the Indonesian bamboo version is not firmly documented, so it is best read as a long-standing street tradition.
Light and loose-crumbed, kue putu almost crumbles as you bite, then the warm centre of melted palm sugar runs out, dark and caramelly. The rice is mild and faintly grassy from pandan, the grated coconut on the outside adds a fresh, salty-sweet chew, and the whole thing is warm, soft and gently sweet rather than rich. Two or three small cylinders make a light snack, best eaten straight off the cart while the sugar is still molten.
The coarse, lightly moistened rice flour is packed loosely so steam can pass through the whole tube; under fast-moving steam the rice grains gelatinize just enough to hold together as a tender, open crumb without compacting into a dense cake. The palm sugar in the centre, melting well below boiling, turns to a syrupy core. The bamboo tube channels the steam and shapes the cylinder, and the cart's whistle is simply the pressurized steam escaping a narrow opening — a working part of the steamer, not decoration.
Variations
The bamboo-tube kue putu bambu is the classic; a flat, coin-shaped kin called putu mayang is instead made of rice-flour noodles with coconut and palm-sugar syrup, and putu piring is a Malay-style mould-pressed version. Some carts tint the rice green with pandan or suji leaf, others leave it pale; the palm-sugar core is occasionally swapped for chocolate in modern stalls.
On the Palate
Where Kue Putu sits in the Indonesian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 15 min waiting
- 18 min
Lightly moisten coarse rice flour with a little water and pandan, then rub it loose and rest it briefly so the grains hydrate.
- 24 min
Sift the dampened flour through a coarse sieve to keep it light and free-flowing.
- 34 min
Shave or chop palm sugar into small pieces for the filling.
- 48 min
Pack each small bamboo tube loosely halfway with rice flour, add a hollow of palm sugar, then top with more flour without pressing hard.
Watch outPack the rice flour into the tube only loosely, never pressed hard — loose packing lets the steam pass through the whole tube so the crumb stays tender and open; press it and you get a dense, gummy cake.
- 52 min
Set the filled tubes over a steamer with fast-rising steam.
- 610 min
Steam until the rice is set and cooked through and the sugar has melted inside.
- 73 min
Push each cake out of its tube onto a bed of fresh grated coconut.
- 82 min
Roll to coat in coconut and serve immediately, while the sugar centre is still molten.
Watch outRoll in the fresh coconut and eat right away while the palm-sugar centre is still molten — let it sit and the syrupy core sets firm and you lose the melting middle.
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