Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Watalappan
A steamed coconut custard set with dark palm jaggery and warm spices, the festive pudding of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 45 min
~317 cal · 9g protein · 9g carbs · 29g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 19g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Watalappan is a rich, steamed coconut custard, a treasured dessert of Sri Lanka's Malay and Muslim communities that has become a nationwide favourite, especially at Eid and celebrations. Deeply spiced and darkly sweet, it is unlike any Western custard.
Its character comes from kithul or palm , the dark, smoky unrefined palm sugar that gives it its colour and caramel depth, and from a generous hit of , clove, and nutmeg. Eggs and set it into a soft, wobbling custard, often scattered with cashews. Steamed rather than baked, it is served cool, its molasses-rich, spiced flavour unforgettable.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, dairy- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
5 eggs
2 cups
1 1/2 cups palm (kithul), grated
8 pods, 7 cloves, 1 stick pods, cloves, and a cinnamon stick, roasted and ground
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
2 in piece pandan leaf
Hard to find? a few drops of pandan paste or extract - pandan is sometimes called Asian vanilla, and vanilla will stand in at a pinch, but it gives you the sweetness without the nutty, grassy side
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cashews, chopped
Instructions
1
Roast the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon briefly, then grind them. Melt the grated jaggery in the coconut milk over low heat until fully dissolved, then cool.
✎ Chef’s note
Buy the jaggery by weight, not by cup, and make it kithul if you can find it. Kithul palm treacle is what gives watalappan its dark, smoky depth; cane jaggery makes a paler, flatter pudding.
2
Whisk the eggs by hand for 3 to 5 minutes until just frothy, stir them into the cooled jaggery milk with the ground spices, the nutmeg, the pandan and the salt, then strain.
✎ Chef’s note
Whisk the eggs by hand, never with an electric beater, which over-beats them. Strain the mixture and skim any foam so the custard sets smooth and silky. No vanilla and no condensed milk: neither belongs in a traditional watalappan.
3
Butter the mould, scatter a little grated jaggery over the base, pour in the mixture with the cashews, cover it tightly with foil, and steam gently until a knife comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Seal the mould with foil or the steam condenses and rains back into the custard. Steaming rather than baking is what leaves the fine honeycomb texture through the set pudding.
4
Cool completely, then chill 2 to 3 hours to set firm before turning it out.
Sri Lankan Malay tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Southern Province. The southern signature is ambul thiyal, which is closer to a drying method than a curry. Fish is rubbed with salt, pepper and goraka, a sour dried fruit, then cooked in a covered clay pot until the liquid has gone entirely, leaving it keeping for days in a cupboard with no cold at all.
🗺️
Sri Lanka. Kottu is eastern rather than Colombo food, from Batticaloa and Trincomalee and the Sri Lankan Moor community, and it is as much sound as dish, godamba roti chopped on a hot plate with two blades in a rhythm you can hear from the street. Hoppers are the other trick, a fermented rice-and-coconut batter swirled up the sides of a small bowl-shaped pan.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Sri Lanka
Parippu & Pol SambolCreamy coconut-milk red lentils with a fiery fresh coconut-chili relish, the twin pillars of a Lankan rice table.
Fish Ambul Thiyal (Sour Fish Curry)Sri Lanka’s dry sour fish curry: firm fish coated in a jet-black paste of goraka and black pepper and cooked down until every piece wears a tangy, peppery crust.
Kottu RotiChopped flatbread stir-fried with curry, vegetables, and egg on a clanging griddle, Colombo’s midnight anthem.
Browse all Sri Lanka recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Steamer, Mould or tin, Whisk.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Sri Lanka meal
Parippu & Pol SambolDinner
Kiri Te (Sri Lankan Milk Tea)Drink
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Watalappan?
A steamed coconut custard set with dark palm jaggery and warm spices, the festive pudding of Sri Lanka.
Where does Watalappan come from?
Watalappan is a Sri Lankan dish from Southern Province, Sri Lanka.
Can Watalappan be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Watalappan recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Watalappan safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Watalappan take to make?
About 60 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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