Following the success of our vegan mango pancakes, we have another delicious Hong Kong-style crepe recipe for you: Blue Pancakes with Durian Cream Filling. They’re so pretty, pillowy, and full of flavor—and completely vegan, too!
Stuffed pancakes are a popular dessert throughout Southeast Asia. Shaped like pillows or buns, they are made from an egg crepe wrapped around a sweet, creamy and fruity filling.
The crepe wrapper can come in a variety of colors such as yellow, pink, green, or blue, while the filling is usually a mixture of whipped cream and pureed or diced fruit.
Mango is the signature filling of the famous Hong Kong-style pancakes, while the creamy durian filling is one of the most popular in the Indonesian version.
In this recipe, we not only show you how to make durian pancakes from scratch, but also how to make them egg-free, dairy-free and low-sugar – perfect for everyone!
For the crepe, we used silken tofu instead of eggs and coconut milk instead of cow’s milk and butter. Then we added a little starch to bind the pancake batter and butterfly pea flower powder to make it look blue.
Butterfly Pea flowers are commonly used in Thai and Malay desserts to add a wonderful blue hue to cakes, blue glutinous rice and sweets.
You can find powdered butterfly pea flower at your local grocery store or online—often called “blue matcha” because it tastes earthy and grassy like matcha but not as bitter.
The blue pea powder is optional, so just skip it. Alternatively, you can use pandan leaf extract or matcha powder to make the crepes green, taro or ube extract for purple, or turmeric for yellow (like we did in our mango pancake recipe).
As for the durian filling, we recommend buying the ripest fruit segments. Ripe durian becomes much creamier, blends easily and is perfect for creating a silky crepe filling.
Ripe durians also become tastier, allowing you to better enjoy the intensely aromatic flavor of this unique tropical fruit.
How do durians taste? To us, durians taste like ripe bananas and almonds mixed with cream cheese and chives. They’re a bit of an acquired taste – I’ll admit it – but we’ve grown to love them!
In fact, we like durian so much we’ve used them in two other delicious recipes: Durian Oatmeal Cookies and Durian Tofu Cheesecake. So give them a try if you have leftovers from this Durian Pancakes recipe!