Sweet Coconut Crêpes prepared with coconut milk and stuffed with sugar cane molasses and Coconut bits or flakes.
You can add food coloring, too, to change the appearance to a bright-colored dessert.
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These are coconut crêpes, which are a common sweet delicacy in Goan homes. They are also known as Alle belle.
The specialty of these stuffed coconut rolled pancake crêpes, is the smooth, elastic and soft texture.
Fresh coconut pieces mixed with sugar cane molasses or coconut molasses is used as a filling in the crepes.
Freshly used ingredients make this dessert a special food memory. I remember how lucky I felt to have discovered this pancake treat.
These Goan
You can color some of the pastry or even all of it.
Often while the coconut crepes are colored red and green but we have even seen yellow variations and mine turned somehow pink.
These coconut pancakes are special because they are cooked only for a short time and the pan is covered during the cooking process.
That way the rolled pancakes are equally well cooked and remain soft and elastic.
The crepes are smooth and the thinner you fry them the better!
It requires a bit of practice but the work is absolutely worth it.
👁️ More Goan Sweets and Dessert
📖 Recipe
Coconut Crepes with Sugar Cane Molasses filling Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
- ¼ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- Pinch Salt
- 1 Egg
- 2 Tablespoon Butter melted
- 1 Cup Coconut milk
- Few Drops Vanilla Extract
- Food Coloring
- Oil
For the Filling:
- 1 Cup Coconut Raw Freshly Shredded
- 1 Cup Jaggery
Instructions
- Add the dry ingredients (Flour, Baking Powder and Salt) into a mixing bowl and combine quickly, then make a well into the center and add in the Egg, melted Butter, Coconut milk and Vanilla Essence.
- Mix the whole content to a smooth liquid pastry.
- At his point, you can make 3 equal batches of the 1 base and leave one plain...
- ..and color the 2 others with some green food coloring and red/pink.
- Mix and crumble the suggar cane into the coconut flakes.
- Heat up a pan, and add about one ladl of pastry.
- The pancakes should be very thin so try to spread the pastry as good as possible by turning the pan before it starts to harden.
- Cover the pan and allow it to cook for 1-2 minutes. Take it off the heat (only cook on one side!) and repeat the process with the rest of the noncolored and colored pastry.
- Place the pancake on a surface, cooked surface down and uncooked up. Add about 1 Tablespoon of filling onto it.
- Now fold in a bit of the sides and slowly start to roll it up as shown.
- Repeat the process with the rest of the cooked pancakes and the remaining filling.
- Serve still warm or cold.
May I suggest you correct the " the suggar cane" and use the words - sugar cane jaggery or molasses. Sugar cane is a vegetable stick. Also a dab of creme chantilly on the Alebele or alleh belleh works great
thanks for the suggestion! 🙂
The colour of these are fantastic! Can't wait to try this recipe myself 🙂
Even In Kerala, we make a similar pancake preparation filled with coconut and jaggery and guess what my mother-in-law says it's called -- 'Love Letter' ;-D I'm planning to make these as a Valentines Day treat this year as apparently my hubby used to love these when he was a kid...but the colored version looks really cool...will try it!
That would be such a fun treat for the kids! Colorful and delightful at the same time.
I tried your recipe and it was delicious. I couldn't get jaggery which is made from sugarcane, so I manged to get palm sugar from a Chinese grocery store. My husband is a Goan and I'm French and it brought tears to his eyes because it reminded him of his late mum's cooking. Yes, you're right. Most Goans don't like to share recipes and we've had the hardest time getting home made recipes. I hope your blog will be that bridge that so many of us on the other side long for.
Peace and love Helene.
These look awesome! I want to make them around Christmas time 🙂 I suppose I could change the colours though?
yeah of course Cass. You can choose any color you want. =)
its just so pretty and fun! I love it. I bet it tastes amazing
These are so pretty looking, and I can almost taste that wonderful filling - thanks for sharing!
From my German to my bad English, I want to thank you for this recipe Alebele that I requested. I made this tonight and she even got the jaggery from Indian spice store. It gives it that unique flavor. Also, mexican spice store carries jaggery called piloncillo.
I want to share secret of scraping fresh coconut. Put the coconut in the freezer overnight. Take it it and hit it with the backside (blunt side) of a cleaver. The coconut will crack in half and the water inside will be frozen. The coconut meat will fall out ready to be grated.
I love your website so much. Thank you (and your mum in law) so much for authentic village style recipes. Could you coax her to share her bebinca recipe. I also loved this dessert when I was in Goa last year. The only thing left is for me to find a wonderful Goan wife 🙂 Danke!
Hi Klaus! Glad you enjoyed the recipe and I want to thank you too for reminding me to post this recipe. I would have forgotten it if it hadn't been for your request. 😉 Further I didn't know that jaggery was available in the Mexican stores and that it was called Piloncillo, again thank you for sharing your knowledge here and the useful coconut tips, it will certainly come handy!
lol I will try my best with the Bebinca recipe but it might take some time since its more of a winter recipe. But I have been planning to post it now for a while, so it is definitely going to come up here in the future. haha yes, all the best in your quest with the goan wife. 😉
What a unique recipe! And so pretty. I want to try it out!
I love pancakes of any kinds and this Goan version is definitely a must-try - it looks so interesting!
What a great recipe to whip up 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love the colours of these pancakes. I can't wait until we get a chance to visit India, I just picture it as a country filled with colours and rich flavours. I also loved the idea of using the onion to spread the oil evenly on the pan.
This recipe is so beautiful and I loved your step by step instructions! I can't wait to try it.
These look so good. I love the festive colors, and the filling sounds amazing. Yum!
Yes to pancakes in every version - I love them, stuffed, plain, savory, sweet and the Goa version looks absolutely amazing!!! Plus they are just so beautiful thank you for sharing!
I never had a rolled up pancake, let alone a bright green one haha I can see these in pastel colors for Easter. Love the idea of coconut filling! Never had jaggery though (but thanks to Food Network, I at least know what it is).
How can a coconut filled pancake be anything less than fabulous??? And the vibrant colors are perfect for ANY holiday!!! Beautifully done, my friend.
What a lovely recipe and informative post! These look so fun, and festive, and anything with coconut is always great... and fresh? Wow, that is inspiring! 😉
So festive Helene! I had never heard of them, but it´s so interesting to learn about traditions. And I doubt I will get fresh coconut easily here. Have a great day!
Gorgeous colours!
I love the colors of these! I've not heard of these pancakes, but they look super good. Definitely these would be fun to try. And old family recipes are always the best! Thank you.
I absolutely loved these as a child and the colours you've got here are amazing!
Your colorful dessert certainly affirms the joy and celebration of the season, Helene. Thank you for sharing your recipes and love of this land.
This is gorgeous...and sounds so tasty! Reminds me a bit of crepes, and I love learning about other food cultures. Thanks so much for sharing!
What colorful pancakes! Now you have me wondering about Jaggery and if I can get some here in Atlanta. I'm off to investigate...
I loooove coming to your blog, because I always get something delicious and cultured. Thank you for sharing!
Wow! I have never seen a recipe like this! I love it and it's so pretty!!
your post brought memories of alle belle being made by my mom. we would finish off these in no time. i have to try making an eggless version of alle belle soon:-)
I love coconut i have to try theses!