Martabak Manis (Indonesian Sweet Thick Pancake)

Martabak Manis

This food is known by many names, among them Martabak Bangka, Martabak Bandung, Terang Bulan, Apam Balik, etc... If you just say the word "martabak", some people might mistake it for another type of food which also goes by the same name but it's completely different than this.
Okay... now... I gave up trying to write an English explanation of this food... I googled it and some people translate this into Indonesian Sweet Thick Pancake... and I think it is a good enough description... This is an Indonesian food, it's sweet, looks like pancake but thicker... ;p

Martabak Manis is one of my favorite snacks from home. However, I must warn you that this is a very high-fat food, and consuming a large amount of Martabak in one go is definitely going to add on a few pounds to your weight... I think this may have been one of the causes of my double-chin and jiggly tummy fats...
My favorite topping is usually cheese, but I couldn't find the right kind of cheese here in the US yet... When I first tried it, my Martabak ended up smelling like pizza because of the melted cheese. So I used chocolate sprinkles instead.

Martabak Manis with Chocolate Sprinkles and Almond

Martabak Manis Adapted from http://www.rahasiadapur.com/resep-martabak-manis.html
Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 cup milk
• 1 pkg dry yeast (about 1 Tbsp)
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 3.5 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Topping ideas:

• Shredded cheese
• Chocolate sprinkles (muisjes)
• Ground peanut
• Condensed milk

Method:

• Mix all ingredients together except baking powder and yeast, until well-incorporated.
• Let it sit for at least 1 hour.
• Brush a flat round pan with butter, and heat the pan until butter melts.
• Add baking powder and yeast to the mixture, stir until there's no lumps.

This is the yeast that I used.
• Set the stove to low heat, and pour the mixture onto the pan.

Heat at low temperature.
• When bubbles start to form, sprinkle sugar, and then cover.

When bubbles form, sprinkle sugar.

Here's a close-up of the surface.

Cover after sprinkling sugar.
• When the surface has dried up, take it out of the pan.
• Spread butter on top of it.

Spread a generous amount of butter.
• Add whatever toppings you desire.

Top with chocolate sprinkles.

Add crushed almonds.
• Cut into half, and put one half on top of the other.
• Cut into smaller squares, or cut as desired.

Cut into half, put one half on top of the other, and then cut into smaller squares.

These are pictures of my third attempt. My first one was a total failure, because I set the stove to high heat. The bottom of the batter was already burnt, but the surface was still uncooked.

My second attempt was not very much different than this one, except that I only used chocolate sprinkles (no almonds). I went on and try it a third time because somehow, the texture of the pancake is not 100% correct... It's supposed to be a little bit more...chewy...? And airy...? If you can see some pores in the picture, there should be more of those on the real Martabak Manis... but this is good enough... I saw some blogs with recipes for Martabak Manis, and some of those look similar to mine...

Martabak Manis

Yup... I think this is good enough to feed my cravings for Martabak Manis... In a way, it's a good thing that I can't make the perfect Martabak Manis... I could be in danger of gaining a lot of weight or probably getting a heart attack...

Martabak Manis