18 Must-Try Vietnamese Desserts

This Vietnamese dessert is a refreshing and colorful blend of tropical fruits, chewy jellies, and coconut milk. It includes a unique element of "red rubies" made from water chestnuts coated in tapioca starch and red food coloring, giving them a shiny, jewel-like appearance. The dish is customizable with various fruits like lychees, longans, and jackfruit, and is served chilled, making it perfect for sharing at parties.

This dessert features a visually appealing layering of coconut and pandan flavors, creating a vibrant green and white jelly. Utilizing fresh pandan leaves and coconut milk, this vegan-friendly treat offers a delicate balance of fragrant pandan and creamy coconut tastes. The recipe involves blending pandan leaves for the green layer and mixing it with agar agar, a plant-based gelatin substitute. This dessert is not overly sweet, aligning with typical preferences in Asian desserts, and is both refreshing and elegant in presentation.

This recipe celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival with a unique combination of savory and sweet flavors. These mooncakes have a rich filling of nuts, seeds, candied fruits, Chinese sausage, and salted egg yolks, encased in a delicate, golden-brown crust. The crust is made from a dough that includes wheat flour, golden syrup, and peanut butter, offering a perfect balance of textures and flavors. This traditional delicacy symbolizes reunion and is often enjoyed with tea or wine, making it an ideal dessert or tea-time snack.

This gluten-free dessert is a delectable combination of coffee and chocolate. It features a coffee-infused chocolate cake, made more intense with the addition of cold brew. The cake is topped with a unique sweetened condensed milk frosting, offering a creamy and sweet contrast. Additionally, mocha hot fudge is swirled into the frosting, replicating the classic look of cream poured into coffee. This recipe, while slightly more involved than everyday baking, promises a rich and satisfying dessert experience.

The dessert known as Banh Chuoi Hap, is a unique dessert that features a blend of ripe bananas, tapioca flour, and rice flour, creating a soft and chewy texture. This cake is steamed, not baked, and is served with a rich coconut sauce and toasted sesame seeds for added flavor and texture. It's a dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan treat that showcases the simple yet delicious flavors common in Southern Vietnamese desserts. The recipe provides a delightful fusion of sweet, creamy, and nutty tastes, perfect for those seeking a non-traditional dessert.

The dessert is a visually stunning and refreshing Vietnamese dessert. It consists of three distinct layers, each offering a unique flavor and texture. The green layer is made from pandan jelly, offering a fragrant aroma. The red layer includes sweet red beans, and the yellow layer features creamy mashed mung beans. The dessert is served over crushed ice and topped with a rich coconut sauce. This dessert is not only a feast for the eyes but also provides a delightful mix of sweet, creamy, and chewy textures.

This recipe is a savory Vietnamese meat pie made with a flaky puff pastry enclosing a delicious ground pork filling. The recipe is straightforward, utilizing ready-made puff pastry and a rich, flavorful meat mixture seasoned with oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil. These pies are baked to a golden hue and offer a perfect blend of crunchy pastry and savory filling. Ideal for snacks or a hearty breakfast, they are both convenient and satisfying.

This recipe offers a simple and delightful way to enjoy the flavors of Vietnamese coffee in a frozen dessert form. Using just three ingredients - heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, and instant Vietnamese coffee, this recipe creates a creamy, coffee-flavored ice cream. The method involves whipping the cream and coffee to form stiff peaks, then combining them with the condensed milk before freezing. The result is a creamy ice cream with a strong coffee flavor, perfect for coffee lovers.

This dessert also known as Chè Bắp, is a delightful dessert featuring sweet corn and glutinous rice, simmered to create a comforting pudding-like consistency. This dish is enhanced with a coconut milk sauce, adding a creamy and rich dimension. It's a simple yet satisfying dessert that can be enjoyed either warm or chilled, perfect for showcasing the natural sweetness of corn. The recipe is straightforward and ideal for those looking to explore traditional Vietnamese desserts.

This recipe offers a unique take on Vietnamese donuts. These donuts are slightly sweet, puffy, and hollow, sprinkled with sesame seeds. They're made by combining warm water, sugar, active dry yeast, flour, salt, and baking powder. The dough is kneaded, left to rise, and then shaped into small balls which are flattened and fried until golden brown. These hollow donuts are simple yet delightful, especially when served with Vietnamese coffee and sweetened condensed milk for dipping.

This recipe transforms traditional Vietnamese iced coffee with a twist of ube, a purple yam known for its nutty, vanilla-like flavor. This simple recipe involves simmering milk with sugar, then enhancing it with ube extract for a vibrant, purple color and unique taste. The condensed milk can be added directly to Vietnamese coffee or mixed with milk for a colorful and flavorful addition.

This recipe is a traditional Vietnamese dessert that combines bananas, tapioca pearls, and coconut milk. The dessert is often enjoyed hot, but can also be served chilled. Key to this recipe is the use of specific types of bananas, like apple or lady's finger bananas, to ensure the right sweetness and texture. It includes tapioca pearls as the foundation, with optional tapioca sticks adding a chewy texture. Finished with a coconut milk base and a topping of salted peanuts, it offers a delightful mix of sweet and savory flavors.

This recipe is a traditional dessert, featuring chewy rice balls with a creamy mung bean filling, served in warm ginger syrup. The dessert is often prepared for Vietnamese New Year (Tết) and is a part of Buddhist rituals. The recipe involves preparing a dough from glutinous rice flour, creating a mung bean paste filling, and making a ginger syrup with palm sugar and pandan leaves. The dish is known for its comforting warmth and rich flavors.

This recipe presents a light and fluffy cake, not overly sweet, and simple to make. Key ingredients include eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, milk, vanilla extract, baking powder, and cake flour. The process involves beating egg yolks with sugar, adding oil, milk, and vanilla, then mixing in sifted flour and baking powder. Separately, egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks and folded into the batter. The cake is baked in a bundt pan, and can be enjoyed with powdered sugar, whipped cream, and fresh fruit.

This recipe is a delightful and healthy treat, known locally as Sữa Chua. Made from fresh milk, sweetened condensed milk, plain yogurt, and warm water, it has a creamy consistency and a balanced sweet-tart taste. The process involves combining these ingredients and incubating them in a warm water bath for 6 to 8 hours, followed by refrigeration. This yogurt pairs wonderfully with fruits, cereals, and nuts, offering a nutritious option for breakfast, snacks, or dessert.

This recipe is a Vietnamese variation of the classic crème caramel, featuring a smooth, silky custard with a rich caramel sauce. This recipe simplifies the process, making it accessible even to beginners. It involves creating a caramel sauce, followed by a custard mixture of eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract. The dessert is baked in a water bath, ensuring even cooking and a delicate texture. It's a popular treat for special occasions, offering a perfect balance of sweetness and creaminess.

This recipe or Sinh To Bo, is a creamy and nutritious drink made from ripe avocados, coconut yogurt (or milk), whole milk, and condensed milk. This smoothie, which can be sweetened to taste, offers a unique blend of flavors and textures, and is often enjoyed as a breakfast, dessert, or snack. The recipe is quick and simple, requiring only blending of these ingredients, and it can be served cold by using frozen avocados or adding crushed ice. This smoothie is a delightful way to enjoy avocados in a sweet form, contrasting with their typical savory use in Western cuisines.

This recipe presents a delightful snack with a golden, crispy exterior and a soft, sweet mung bean center, all coated in white sesame seeds. This traditional Vietnamese dessert combines glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, and wheat flour to create a unique texture. The recipe requires soaking and cooking mung beans for the filling, and the dough is made with a combination of flours and potato flakes for crispiness. These balls are deep-fried, offering a satisfying balance of crunchy and chewy textures.