SHOP
FEATURES
RECIPES
CONTESTS
HOTLINE
Log In SIGN UP
🔔
␡
NEW & NOWDESSERTICE CREAM & FROZEN DESSERTSPHOTOGRAPHY & STYLING
12 Filipino Desserts You Need to
Know About (& Try!)
by Celeste Noche • August 18, 2016 • 31 Comments
♦ 26 SAVE
SHARE
TWEET
PIN
✉EMAIL
When chocolate rice is a breakfast staple and sugary cheese bread makes an appearance
at merienda (snack time), it’s hard to know where everyday Filipino food ends and
dessert begins. (Spoiler: There’s no clear line, we Filipinos will happily eat these all day
every day.)
Photo by Celeste Noche
But for purposes of this article, I’m defining dessert as something you’d usually eat at the
end of an enormous family dinner (you know, the buffets where there’s so much food that
there isn’t room for anyone to actually sit at the table anymore, where aunts tell you
simultaneously how fat you’ve gotten while also insisting you eat more, and where
karaoke is happening in the background).
Many of these desserts use rice flour—a staple of the 7000 islands that compose the
Philippines—along with tropical fruit like coconut, saba bananas (cooking bananas), and
ube (purple yam). And while there are traditional methods and countless variations of
each, the most Filipino approach of all would be to make these with whatever you
have, however you can, and to share with everyone—even if they claim they’re too
full to eat another bite.
ADVERTISING
1. Halo-Halo ("hall-o hall-o")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Perhaps the most well-known of Filipino desserts, halo-halo translates to “mix mix” and
is just that: a jumble of toppings that you literally mix up to eat. Its origins can be traced
back to various Japanese shaved ice desserts, but now halo-halo is a menu staple at most
Filipino restaurants (Anthony Bourdain even tried some at the Filipino chain Jollibee in
Los Angeles!).
The combination of sweet toppings may vary, but there is a general formula: a starchy
base like boiled beans or ube; a syrupy fruit like macapuno coconut or jackfruit; a layer
of jello; a layer of shaved ice; some ice cream or leche flan; and, finally, a drizzle of
evaporated milk.
2. Tropical Ice Cream
Photo by Celeste Noche
In the Philippines, ice cream peddlers sell tiny cones for the U.S. equivalent of 45 cents.
While you won’t find one of them in the U.S., brands
like Magnolia and Mitchell’s import or make their own versions of Filipino flavors that
are often unavailable at regular American markets. These tropical flavors come in an
array of colors and include mango, avocado, jackfruit, ube, multiple kinds of coconut
(buko, macapuno, and buko pandan—young coconut, matured sweetened coconut, and
young coconut flavored with the tropical, vanilla-esque pandan leaf, respectively),
and cheese. Yes, cheese!
3. Ube Halaya ("oo-beh ha-lay-ah")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Ube, often confused with its cousin taro, is a sweet purple yam native to the Philippines.
Ube halaya is both a traditional dessert in itself and also a base for many other Filipino
treats like halo-halo, ube bread, and ube ice cream. To make ube halaya, the ube is
boiled, grated, then mixed with sugar and milk until it thickens into a viscous pudding. It
can then be eaten with a spoon or in small chewy bite-sized pieces, depending on how the
cook has prepared it.
4. Palitaw ("pah-lee-ta-ow")
Photo by Celeste Noche
These sweet, flat rice cakes are made of only five ingredients: water, rice flour, coconut,
sesame seeds, and sugar. Their name comes from their cooking process: “Litaw” means
“to float,” and that’s exactly how you know they’ve finished cooking. Although they are
traditionally made with home-ground sticky rice, you’re more likely to find them made
with factory-processed glutinous rice flour today. Water is added to glutinous rice flour
and kneaded until a mochi-like consistency is formed. They’re then dropped in boiling
water until they float, then scooped out and dipped with grated coconut, toasted sesame
seeds, and sugar.
5. Puto and Kutsinta ("koo-chin-tuh")
Puto (on the left) and kutsinta (on the right) Photo by Celeste Noche
These bite-sized treats are both made from rice flour and steamed: The difference is
that kutsinta gets its color and texture from brown sugar and lye water. While either one
can be eaten for breakfast or merienda, puto is often served alongside savory dishes
like dinuguan (a savory meat stew) and pancit (noodles). For dessert, puto and kutsinta
are usually served together, with grated coconut or melted butter.
6. Ginatan ("gin-ah-tahn")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Ginatan is a pudding-like dessert that’s served warm. It’s typical base is made of coconut
milk and rice flour, then customized with additional ingredients like mais (corn)
and mungo (mung bean). The most popular version, however, is bilo bilo: Deriving from
the word “bilog,” meaning, “round,” bilo bilo contains chewy rice balls mixed with
cooking bananas (saba) or plantains, a root vegetable (such as ube, sweet potato, or taro),
coconut milk, jackfruit, and tapioca pearls. It's among the heartier Filipino desserts and
also happens to be vegan and gluten-free.
7. Leche Flan
Photo by Celeste Noche
Leche flan is one of many legacies of Spanish colonization in the Philippines from the
sixteenth to late nineteenth centuries. It’s inspired by and very similar to the European
crème caramel, but the Filipino version often uses sweetened condensed milk in place of
regular milk. This creamy egg custard is often served with a light caramel syrup on top
and prepared for special occasions.
8. Kalamay ("ka-lahm-eye")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Kalamay, meaning “sugar,” is a sticky dessert with a flavor similar to that of a coconut
rice pudding. But because the sweet rice (or, more commonly, glutinous rice flour) is
heated and then left to cool, the texture is chewy and dense rather than creamy and
soft. Kalamay always contains coconut milk, sugar, and ground rice as its base, but it
varies throughout different regions of the country: There’s peanut butter kalamay in
Mindoro and green rice kalamay in Tarlac in the north, for example.
9. Turon ("tu-rohn")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Turon is a common street food made of sliced saba bananas, jackfruit, and brown sugar
wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and fried. When the roll is fried, the sugar melts and
seeps out, coating the wrapper in a caramel syrup. Turon can be eaten at room
temperature but are best hot off the pan and served with ice cream.
10. Buko Salad ("boo-koh")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Buko salad is the Philippines’ take on fruit salad. Buko (young coconut) is mixed with
condensed milk, heavy cream, and canned fruit cocktail, then chilled before serving, and
it’s also common to add for fresh fruit like apples and grapes for texture. Buko salad is
often more about the temperature and texture (cold and creamy) than the flavors of the
fruit, making it a rich and refreshing treat in the humid climate.
11. Maruya ("mah-roo-yah")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Maruya are the Philippines’ version of banana fritters. Saba bananas are sliced and
dipped in a thin, pancake-like batter, then fried and sprinkled with sugar. Although this
dessert can often be found as street food, it’s commonly made at home, too. Other less
traditional versions use sweet potato, coconut, or corn in place of the bananas.
12. Gulaman ("goo-lah-mahn")
Photo by Celeste Noche
Gulaman, or agar, is a type of dried seaweed used to make jellos and gelatin. The
seaweed is dehydrated and sold in bars, which are then broken up and boiled in water to
create the jelly. And the word "gulaman" also refers to the actual dessert that the gulaman
bars are turned into.
Traditional recipes call for fruit and extracts to sweeten the otherwise-flavorless gelatin,
and the finished dessert often consists of different layers of gulaman, all flavored
differently. It’s common to include a layer set around fruit cocktail, a “milky” layer
composed of an evaporated milk or almond jello, and an additional fruity layer on top.
This article originally appeared earlier in the summer. We're re-running it now because
so many of you loved it.
🔔 VIEW COMMENTS (31) SHARE THIS ARTICLE TWEET THIS ARTICLE
Want more Food52?
Our best tips for eating thoughtfully and living joyfully, right to your inbox.
I'm In
APPEARS IN THESE COLLECTIONS
Sweets
By Asta Caplan • 221 Items
snacks
By Madeline Hall • 3 Items
Articles
By Kathy_P. • 3736 Items
sweet:
By teclo76 • 3204 Items
Asian Fixations
By saramin • 117 Items
Baked
By SJ • 121 Items
MORE GREAT ARTICLES
The Endlessly-Customizable Frozen Dessert that Works for Any Diet or Dinner
The Popsicle Trick That’s Taking Over Japanese Twitter
This French Pâtissier's Passion for Pastry & Shoes Is Next-Level
Celeste Noche
FOLLOW 🔔 celestenoche.com/blog
i'm only here for the food
Past articles from this author you'll love:
What Eating with My Hands Means to Me (and 6 Other Filipinos...
The Filipino Frozen Dessert More Irresistible Than an Ice...
FROM OUR FRIENDS
LIQUOR.COM
The Only Margarita Recipe You Will Ever Need
TABLESPOON.COM
A Cake for Cream Soda Lovers
PUREWOW.COM
How to Make Cloud Eggs, the Dreamiest Breakfast Ever
TABLESPOON.COM
23 Recipes You Can Bring to Any Potluck
powered by ZergNet
SWEET RICE
Staub Petite French Oven Stovetop Rice Cooker
Saffron-Infused Rice Pudding (Sholeh Zard), in the Persian Manner
Brooks Headley's Fancy Desserts, Signed Copy
Rice Pudding with Sesame Crumble and Blueberries
Most People Don't Know This Basic Bit of
Cooking Knowledge
THE GIANT UN-TRUTH THAT'S REPEATED IN RECIPES &
CASUAL CONVERSATION
1-800-Flowers Wants You to Buy Their Snacks
A Beloved (Best-Selling) Nonstick Pan
The Great British Baking Show Episode 6: Botanical!
Non-Alcoholic Spirits: Summer Sipping Ahead!
COMMENTS (31)
Add Comment
Send me emails about new comments.
Check for new comments
about a month agoMonica Sharman
Celeste, what a labor of love in making all of these. Your photos are AMAZING.
↩
about a month agoCeleste Noche
thanks for recognizing the labor of love, monica! it definitely was and i'm still proud a
year later :)
↩
5 months agoTess
Just did a search for two recipes on food52.com and came up with no matches. Unless I
missed it - are these recipes available on the site? If not - it's kind of odd to offer a list
without accompanying recipes.
↩
5 months agoMary-Ann Ortiz-Luis
You hit all the best ones, Celeste!
↩
11 months agoMerrill Stubbs
Merrill is a co-founder of Food52.
I'd like to try every single dessert on this list. Thank you, Celeste, for such a great (and
educational) article!
↩
10 months agoCeleste Noche
Thank you, Merrill!! This was such a labor of love, I'm so happy to share it with you and
the Food52 community :)
↩
11 months agofwsd
Parang mali ang kalamay. Biko ang tawag samin ng nasa picture, mas mukhang tikoy
ang kalamay.
↩
a year agoKathie Mathews
would agave or perhaps organic cocoanut palm sugar work as substitute? I am trying to
avoid sugar period whenever possible but want to learn how to make some of these
wonderful traditions for my new Filipino son-in-law as he's married a 1/2 Irish 1/2
Norwegian, my daughter?!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
I haven't tried making them myself but it's worth a shot! A lot of Filipino desserts are
really sweet, so sugar sometimes feels unavoidable but keep us posted on how it goes!
↩
a year agoManolet Agoncillo
Celeste, bakit walang suman?
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
Kamusta ka, Manolet! Ang suman, kadalasan ay sa merienda at almusan kinakain ng
aking pamilya :)
↩
a year agoAnna E.
Anything made with glutinous rice can be considered dessert so long as the end result
is sweet. Pilipinos can make a dessert out of what Americans consider a vegetable
(Avocado ice cream anyone? And who would have thought of putting corn and cheese
in ice cream?) Varying regions also have a twist to each type of dessert. My aunt would
make us pound cassava root after boiling it and slowly mix in sugar and coconut milk
then putting it over fire again. Never knew what it was called but it is delicious! And if
you really want to go all hog - wait til Christmas time when puto bungbong, espasol,
bibingka, pulvoron, etc., comes in huge baskets! YUM!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
Agreed! It was so tough to narrow down for this feature and it was a weird conundrum
where anything could be dessert but also dessert could be eaten any time of the day!
Your tita's dish sounds like simple cassava cake! So many desserts, so little time.. :)
↩
a year agoJoni Whitworth
These look SO yummy. Well done!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
Thank you sweet Joni!
↩
a year agoSaoirse Rona
That is not Kalamay but Biko, Green Biko. :)
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
The great and complicated thing about Filipino desserts is that types, names, and
versions can vary depending on the region or province. According to my mom, who was
raised in Manila with grandparents from Pampanga and Ilocos, this biko pandan is a
type of kalamay, with kalamay being the overall base of sweet rice or pinipig.
↩
a year agoChefJune
June is a trusted source on General Cooking.
I;m missing bibingka from your list!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
More merienda! The Filipino sweets repertoire is no joke!
↩
3 months agoJane
Yes, bibingka! I made bibingka in Manila years ago with friends who owned a bibingka
stall. Delicious!
↩
a year agothechewinn-nova.com
How about cassava cake or pudding? It is more popularly serve in gatherings here in
the US than most of the desserts mentioned above and has spawned various versions.
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
I talked to my mom about this, too, and she always saw it more as merienda than
dessert growing up. Sounds like I may need to do a follow up!
↩
a year agomilkjam
Love ginatan, have not had any in years, that will have to change! What about biko?.Try
to make it every year around Christmas. You list so many ideas using sweet rice flour,
Thanks.
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
The ginatan was actually surprisingly easy to make once I had all the ingredients! I was
considering including biko but was thinking that was more like merienda. Maybe another
post? :)
↩
a year agoJoanne Boston-KwanHull
Thanks for creating this list!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
i'm glad you enjoyed it!
↩
a year agoGeebee3
You forgot about tibok-tibok. I forget what it is called outside of Pampanga.
↩
a year agoJoanne Boston-KwanHull
Maja blanca! My fave!
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
alas, there is only so much time in a day!
↩
a year agoJanelle
My favorite dessert Carioca is sadly missing! Carioca is a mochi like doughnut, dough
made from sweet rice flour and coconut milk is fried and then covered in a warm
caramel like palm sugar syrup. Sometimes grated coconut is sprinkled on top. Seriously
my fave and when my mom makes it I can't stop eating them.
Also I don't know if this is just my mom or a regional thing, but she will freeze a brick of
cream cheese until firm and grate it into her Buko making it more like a cheese-cake.
↩
a year agoCeleste Noche
I actually talked to my mom about including it, but she thought it was more merienda
than dessert! The funny things about Filipino food are that 1) eating sweets around the
clock can make it really hard to distinguish between merienda and dessert and 2)
recipes really vary across regions and families :)
↩
Want more Food52?Our best tips for eating thoughtfully and living joyfully, right to your
inbox.
I'm In
FIND
Columns
Recipes
Contests
Hotline
Shop
The Piglet
Sitemap
COMPANY
About Us
In the News
Events
Team
Jobs - We're Hiring!
Contact
FAQs
Advertising
SHOP
My Orders
Shop Collections
Gift Cards
Wedding Registry
Get Help
FAQ
Refer Friends, Get $20
Affiliate Program
©2017 Food52 Terms | Privacy
