Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe – An Easy No Churn Ice Cream Recipe for Any Flavour. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Easy Asian Dessert Recipes for a Taste of the Sweet Side of Southeast Asia

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These easy Asian desserts recipes will give you a taste of the sweet side of Southeast Asia from your home. If you’re missing travelling and eating your way through Asia and are missing Southeast Asian desserts, then make one of our super-easy recipes for our favourite Asian sweets, from mango and sticky rice to Thai tea ice cream.

If you’re a lover of Asian sweets, especially Southeast Asian treats, then we have some easy Asian desserts recipes for you. While I’m a big fan of desserts in Asian, I absolutely adore Southeast Asian sweets the most. And what’s not to love?

Southeast Asian desserts are distinguished by tropical fruits, such as mango, banana and coconut, ingredients that add texture such as sago, tapioca and sesame seeds, and spices such as star anise and cinnamon. You can eat them warm in winter and chilled with crushed ice in summer.

Before I tell you all about these easy Asian desserts recipes, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve used and enjoyed our Asian and Cambodian recipes, or any of our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo.

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You can also support our work by using links on the site to book accommodation, rent a car, purchase travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide; shopping our Grantourismo online store (we have fun gifts for foodies designed with Terence’s images); or buying something on Amazon, such as these award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, and gifts for Asian food lovers. Now let me tell you all about these easy Asian desserts recipes.

Easy Asian Desserts Recipes for a Taste of the Sweet Side of Southeast Asia

These easy Asian desserts recipes will give you a taste of the sweet side of Southeast Asia from your home.

Thai Mango Sticky Rice Recipe by Chef David Thompson

This Thai mango sticky rice recipe adapted from chef David Thompson’s Thai Street Food cookbook makes the much-loved Thai dessert kao niaw mamuang tops our easy Asian desserts recipes.

Despite the detailed recipe notes it’s nowhere near as intimidating as it looks and this jasmine scented sweet will take you back to eating on the streets of Thailand. Making the recipe became my mission after the mango rains started last year.

I’d been ogling the green mangoes that hung from the towering mango trees in our Siem Reap neighbourhood and the second I got my hands on some I set to work. Less than 90 minutes later, after all the bits easily came together, I wondered what on earth I’d been concerned about.

My lesson: don’t let detailed recipes of the kind you find in chef’s cookbooks deter you. Those finicky directions for plunging knotted pandan leaves in water and perfuming rice with fresh jasmine flowers are there for a reason. Embrace them and delight in the results.

This Thai Mango Sticky Rice Recipe by Chef David Thompson Is Not As Intimidating As It Looks

Vietnamese Sweet Corn Pudding Recipe for Hoi An Style Che Bap

This easy Vietnamese sweet corn pudding recipe makes chè bắp in the Hoi An style of Central Vietnam and it’s another one of our easy Asian desserts recipes. Chè bắp is also a Southern Vietnamese sweet corn pudding, while chè ngô is the Northern Vietnamese sweet corn pudding.

We lived in the ancient port town’s atmospheric historic centre before we moved to Cambodia’s Siem Reap. This recipe makes the chè bắp that we used to eat as a late afternoon treat, perched on the lovely chè seller’s tiny wooden stools on the sunny square by the Hoi An river. Chè is a style of Vietnamese dessert that can be like a pudding, a porridge, even a soup.

Some chè sellers offer a dozen or more sweets, while some, like our chè bắp vendor in Hoi An, specialise in just a few. If you’ve been to Hoi An and tried this, it will take you right back to snacking on this sweet on those tiny stools.

Vietnamese Sweet Corn Pudding Recipe for Che Bap in the Hoi An Style of Central Vietnam

Cambodian Banana Coconut Tapioca Pudding Recipe with Sesame and Star Anise

This banana coconut tapioca pudding recipe makes Cambodia’s chek ktis, a sweet and creamy aromatic dessert of stewed banana in coconut milk and tapioca pearls, that’s perfumed with star anise.

Garnish with grated coconut, add a drizzle of coconut cream, and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving. It’s sweet Cambodia in a bowl, it’s sublime, and it’s another one of our easy Asian desserts recipes.

Traditionally, palm sugar was used in this dessert, and I much prefer the caramel-like taste, however, it results in a darker colour that’s not considered to be attractive by local cooks, so these days Cambodians often use white sugar. I did spot some palm sugar from Thailand on Amazon if you want to try the more traditional style.

Unless you can get hold of some coconuts to press your own coconut cream and coconut milk as they do here, tinned coconut milk and canned coconut cream are just fine, as are dried grated coconut or desiccated coconut.

Cambodian Banana Coconut Tapioca Pudding Recipe with Sesame and Star Anise for Chek Ktis

Our Best Mango Sago Recipe for an Easy Healthy Creamy Mango Sago Pudding

Our best mango sago recipe makes an easy, healthy, creamy Southeast Asian mango sago pudding made with just five ingredients, making it another one of our easy Asian desserts recipes.

It’s also made without cream – no coconut cream, no dairy cream, no condensed milk, nada. The secret to the creaminess is frozen mangos, just like with our mango smoothie – which also makes this mango sago pudding healthier than most.

This is the best mango sago recipe if you love a mango sago pudding or mango sago cups but you don’t love the half cup of sugar or cups of coconut cream and condensed milk that go into this delicious Southeast Asian dessert.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore coconut cream and condensed milk works for many desserts. They’re just not needed here, this is so good.

Our Best Mango Sago Recipe for an Easy Healthy Creamy Mango Sago Pudding

Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe and an Easy No Churn Ice Cream Recipe for Any Flavour

This Thai tea ice cream recipe makes the easiest no churn ice cream that you’ll ever make using just four ingredients: Thai tea mix, whipping cream, condensed milk, and salt, making it another one of our easy Asian desserts recipes.

The flavour will take you right back to Thailand, but you can really use any flavour. If you’ve been to Thailand and tried the bright orange Thai iced tea at a coffee shop or local restaurant and you loved it, then you are going to love this Thai tea ice cream.

If you tasted the soft serve Thai tea ice cream at Bangkok’s Chatuchak market, then you’re going to adore this. If you’re not a fan of Thai tea – and this is what I’m talking about: ChaTraMue Extra Gold Thai Tea Mix or Number One Brand Original Thai Tea Mix Red Label – then you can add anything to our recipe, from vanilla to chocolate chips, ground peanuts to crushed biscuits.

No ice cream maker needed, just an electric hand beater to whip heavy whipping cream until peaks form, then you fold in the sweetened condensed milk. The only other things you’ll need are a teapot with stainless steel filter or aThai tea filter or tea strainer and a large ice cream scoop.

Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe and an Easy No Churn Ice Cream Recipe for Any Flavour

Caramelised Pumpkin Sago Pudding Recipe for Cambodian’s Borbor Lapov

This caramelised pumpkin sago pudding recipe makes a sweet Cambodian dessert called borbor lapov. Made with pumpkin and sago pearls – lapov is pumpkin in Khmer while a borbor is a porridge – it’s a sweet porridge eaten as a street food snack and is the last of our easy Asian desserts recipes.

At home, you can add vanilla or coconut ice cream and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. The caramelised pumpkin combines with the sago pearls to create a pudding that is sweet and textured and, if you serve it warm, also very comforting.

Traditionally, the pumpkin isn’t usually caramelised. I’ve taken inspiration from another Cambodian dessert called domlong chung skor, which is caramelised sweet potato with palm sugar.

This dessert is typically served cold with condensed milk, coconut cream, and crushed ice. Caramelising the pumpkin results in a much more delicious dessert.

Caramelised Pumpkin Sago Pudding Recipe for the Cambodian Dessert Porridge Borbor Lapov

Pink Dragon Fruit Sago Pudding Recipe for the Prettiest Tropical Dessert

This pink dragon fruit sago pudding recipe makes the prettiest tropical superfood dessert you’ll savour this season. Not only is this tropical fruit pudding delightful to look at – who doesn’t love pink sweets? – it’s a healthy dessert too.

Red dragon fruit is a superfood, rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, high in fibre, and low in calories. It’s not only super scrummy, it’s a superfood. If you’re not familiar with red dragon fruit, it’s a superfood.

Loaded with antioxidants, red dragon fruit is rich in vitamins and minerals, it’s also high in fibre, low in calories, and is great for gut health.

Pink Dragon Fruit Sago Pudding Recipe for the Prettiest Tropical Superfood Dessert

Please do let us know if you make any of our easy Asian desserts recipes for a sweet taste of Southeast Asia as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

2 thoughts on “Easy Asian Dessert Recipes for a Taste of the Sweet Side of Southeast Asia”

  1. My late mother-in-law used to make Che Dau (sticky rice with black-eye peas and coconut milk) and it was always a big hit. I find it too rich and heavy in carbs. But on hot summer days, we love the Vietnamese Che Ba Mau (gelatin with pandan flavor, red beans and mung beans over ice). The Malaysian version (Ice Kacang or ABC) is even better!

  2. Hi Eileen, lovely to see you here! I was never a fan of black eyed peas, but maybe I need to try them again. I love ice kacang! I really should make that actually. Thank you for the inspiration! One of my favourite Vietnamese desserts is Chí mà phù, which is originally Chinese of course, but I have such fond memories of eating it on chilly nights in Dalat and will always think of it as Vietnamese. I’ve been thinking about publishing that too, but it’s so black, I’m not sure if readers not familiar with it will be tempted to make it. And those who know it know how to make it. But publishing it is a good excuse for me to eat it again! :) Thanks for taking the time to drop by, Eileen. Hope you’re well!

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