Make a Fake Coconut Ice (+Coco Pandan Syrup)

Back home in Indonesia, coco pandan syrup is the trust worthy companion to beat the heat. Just mixing it with water and putting ice, making a kopyor or young coconut ice. Sadly I can't find both the syrup and young coconut (It is always ripe coconut, which harder meat isn't suitable for desserts) it in stores nearby, even the Asian stores (good for you if you can). I've found rose syrup, which I think placed as dearly as coco pandan syrup for people growing up with it, but as they're not the same syrup (though coloured pink as commercial coco pandan syrup does), my thirst for coco pandan syrup is not quenched.

In this Instructables we will try to make a fake coconut ice (and coco pandan syrup beforehand) at home. I actually follow this recipe for the syrup (2 recipes), but use pandan extract instead of pandan leaves.

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Coco Pandan Syrup

• 500ml Coconut water
• 2 tsps Pandan extract (as I can't find pandan leaves in the store) (It is sadly compulsory as it's in the name. Maybe you can leave it but then it will become coconut syrup, I don’t think the taste will differ but the aroma will be. You can get pandan extract or pandan leaves in Asian store). If you really can't find it, you can exchange it with vanilla extract (but it will become coco vanilla syrup)
• 250gr Sugar

Fake kopyor/ young coconut

This is a common way to enjoy "coconut" ice without the hassle of opening/ finding a young coconut (for 6-8 glasses).

• 10 g Agar (usually I get a powdered version, but can only find this version. If you don't have agar, jelly powder or gelatine powder can be used as substitute.)
• 3 Table spoon (45g) of sugar
• 500ml water + 60g of coconut powder (or 500ml of coconut milk + 50ml of water)

Additional for Ice

• Nata de Coco (nata de pina should also be fine)
• ice cubes

Cookware

• 2 pans
• 2 Spoons for mixing (preferably wood)

Step 2: Make Coco Pandan Syrup

Add 250g sugar to 500ml of coconut water, put into a boil. Don't forget to stir once in a while to make sure that the sugar mixes well and doesn't get burnt in the bottom of the pan. Add two teaspoons (or to taste) of pandan extract. Let it cool.

After that you can put the syrup into a bottle and keep it in room temperature.

Step 3: Make Fake Coconut

Add 10g agar, 60g of coconut powder, and 45g of sugar inside a pan. Pour 500ml of water, and let it boil and mix it well. Stir once a while to ensure that the powder doesn't clump and if you use real coconut milk, it won't separate.

Let it cool. Room temperature is fine, refrigerator to make it faster.

Step 4: Make a Fake Coconut Ice and Coco Pandan Drink

After the fake coconut cools, you can put two table spoons into a glass, add two table spoons of nata de coco, one table spoon of coco pandan syrup (or to taste), and put ice cubes.

It's a definite drink to beat the heat with.

If you only want to drink the coco pandan syrup, you can also mix the coco pandan syrup with water + ice cubes. Usually one table spoon is enough for me for about 250ml of water.

Other variations are to put the syrup in milk or tea as sweetener, add fruits inside the mixture to make "fruit soup". Coco pandan syrup is the heart of a lot of Indonesian ice desserts ((some examples here or here), you can just add any fruits, tapioca pearls, and jellies you have inside the syrup.