Halo Halo is a popular shaved ice dessert in the Philippines prepared with shaved ice, evaporated milk and various ingredients like sweetened beans, sweetened fruits, boba pearls, nata de coco, palm fruit then topped with leche flan and ube jam.
Halo-halo is a popular Filipino dessert made out of mixed beans (kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit, pounded crushed young rice), fruits (coconut sport, plantains caramelized in sugar, jackfruit), gulaman, tapioca pearls, nata de coco and sweet potato served with milk flavoured shaved ice topped with purple yam, leche flan and sometimes ice cream. I guess if I am to ask this is the best dessert Philippines have to offer, it’s a complete dessert snack that will satisfy you to every scoop until the last drop, it’s an explosion of different flavours and it will sure cool you down on a hot summer day.
Now this recipe is a bit hard to make Halo-halo in New Zealand as we don’t had the usual ice shredder that we can easily buy in the Philippines so instead of using shredded ice that is flavoured with evaporated milk I will be using fresh milk in carton as milk when frozen can be easily shaved by using a normal knife. Also for the Purple Yam I used the store bought bottled yam as this is a bit laborious to make but once I have the time to make it at home I will share that recipe. For the sweetened beans, it’s just a simple method of boiling a cup of beans with 1/2 cup of sugar and pinch of salt. Preparing the different ingredients might take a while but trust me this dessert is so good, very unique taste compared to Western desserts.
Also I would like to thank all readers and people who nominated Ang Sarap in the Philippine Blog Awards 2011. I made it to the finals, I certainly cannot do it without you!
Halo Halo is a popular shaved ice dessert in the Philippines prepared with shaved ice, evaporated milk and various ingredients like sweetened beans, sweetened fruits, boba pearls, nata de coco, palm fruit then topped with leche flan and ube jam.
Add your first 10 ingredients on the bottom of a tall glass; this should not exceed 1/3 of the volume of the glass.
Add enough shaved frozen milk to nearly fill the glass, add a tablespoon of sugar if you want it sweet (totally optional as the most of the ingredients are sweet already).
Note: You can use 2 methods of making shaved frozen milk, first is to lightly pound the frozen milk carton inside a towel using a kitchen mallet this is an easy way of having a shaved milk but does not give an even ice texture. Another method is to open the milk carton to get the whole frozen milk block then use a knife to carve the ice this is a better way of doing it as it gives an even texture but it takes much longer
Top with a slice of Leche Flan and purple yam.
Notes
If amount of each ingredient is not mentioned you can use as much as you can but recommended amount would be a tablespoon each.
Update: I changed the picture above and I have already an ice shaver so this time I used shaved ice with evaporated milk.
Beans in dessert? Very interesting. I’m relatively accustomed to eating beans with dessert, because Korean food uses a lot of red bean. This looks really delicious, and so pretty!
What a pretty dessert and very interesting ingredients. Congratulations on being in the finals for the blog awards – can we still vote for you? 🙂 Mandy
I’m another one going… beans in a dessert? Whoa!!! Ok, I must then admit, that looking at the photo I never would have guessed that beans are in it, but that said, I can’t taste the photo LOL.
The words “very unique taste” at the bottom of your post… hmm, …like the Dutch and the “unique” taste of “Drop” (salt liquice) … most Dutch adore it (i’m in a massive minority becuase I don’t) and almost all non-Dutch go “Ewwww” (as they hurry to a rubbish bin to spit it out).
Hello Raymund, and I certainly would love to say hello to this dessert. Its quite unique and inviting. Interesting to see kidney beans instead of red beans being used. Congratulations on making it to the finals
Congrats on the blog awards! That is a beautiful dessert, never thought to put beans in one though. Keep up the great posts, I always learn something from you.
I also didn’t know Filipinos use sweetened red beans (azuki?) in your dessert. Happy to see my favorite in this dessert. You are very creative trying to find a method to get better shaved ice -freezing the milk in carton! Very innovative method that I bet a lot of people are so happy finding out. 😉
Congratulations on making the blogging finals, Raymund–you richly deserve it!
Halo-halo is so beautiful to look at it seems it would be a crime to destroy the dish by eating it. But I think that of many beautiful foods, I suppose, and have so little self-restraint that if I were around some of this (even so beautifully prepared by you) I’m sure I would soon give in and discover how delicious it is, too. 🙂 I’ve seen it before and know how popular it is, so it’s great to see here how it’s made.
Hi Raymund! Your halo-halo looks perfect! Thanks for that excellent idea of using frozen milk in substitute for shredded ice. I’m just so grateful for it coz I can now create my own personal halo-halo even with-out ice shredder. Very helpful indeed! And yes, congratulations for making it to the finals on that Philippine Blog Awards. You certainly deserve more than that!
‘allo ‘allo! Hey Ray, I have a question for you. (sorry this is not on topic) But you are our resident food historian. Do you have a source that will tell us why Russian fudge is called Russian. It is very NZ, plus is adapted from a scottish fudge called Tablet. The Russians have no real fudge in their culture at all. That is all I know. Where do i go to find out more?..How is Queen st this morning.. c
This is the only source on the net which talks about it probable origin http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-russian-fudge.htm. And it is so muggy here, Drizzling and so humid, Auckland is having its 4 seasons in a day tantrums again.
Until I started making “dessert hummus,” I would never have understood how this could be good and sweet. Now I just want to make it! What an interesting dessert!
Halo-Halo is my absolute favorite! My husband doesn’t like it (for shame!) but that just means there’s more for me 🙂 Congratulations on your nomination!
Congratulations!!! How exciting and so well deserved. This yummy dessert looks beautiful and very different than what I am used to eating for dessert. I would love to try it!
I would like to ask for your permission to make use of the images on your website for a project in a Web Development class in school. It’s for a completely academic and non-commercial purpose. We will also provide a link to your site as part of the image sources.
Beans in dessert? Very interesting. I’m relatively accustomed to eating beans with dessert, because Korean food uses a lot of red bean. This looks really delicious, and so pretty!
★★★★★
What a pretty dessert and very interesting ingredients.
Congratulations on being in the finals for the blog awards – can we still vote for you?
🙂 Mandy
Looks really nice and I think something like our Ice Kacang though some ingredients are different. Congrats Raymund and hope more will follow.
My goodness…must have tasted divine..excellent clik again..:)
Tasty Appetite
★★★★★
I’m another one going… beans in a dessert? Whoa!!!
Ok, I must then admit, that looking at the photo I never would have guessed that beans are in it, but that said, I can’t taste the photo LOL.
The words “very unique taste” at the bottom of your post… hmm,
…like the Dutch and the “unique” taste of “Drop” (salt liquice) … most Dutch adore it (i’m in a massive minority becuase I don’t) and almost all non-Dutch go “Ewwww” (as they hurry to a rubbish bin to spit it out).
Hello Raymund, and I certainly would love to say hello to this dessert. Its quite unique and inviting. Interesting to see kidney beans instead of red beans being used. Congratulations on making it to the finals
★★★★★
Congrats on the blog awards! That is a beautiful dessert, never thought to put beans in one though. Keep up the great posts, I always learn something from you.
★★★★★
olala.. i love halo-halo.. and for me, it’s not complete without an ice cream..
Congratulations on the Blog Awards! It’s well-deserved. 🙂 And I know my kids would love this – they were big fans of the jackfruit!
★★★★★
Ha, ha, I’m going to sound so American here, beans for dessert? It looks beautiful and congrats on the awards.
I also didn’t know Filipinos use sweetened red beans (azuki?) in your dessert. Happy to see my favorite in this dessert. You are very creative trying to find a method to get better shaved ice -freezing the milk in carton! Very innovative method that I bet a lot of people are so happy finding out. 😉
Congratulations on the Awards! You are so worth it!
Now.. dessert…from beans… Let it grow into my mind and we’ll see..
Have a great weekend!
★★★★★
I’ve never associated beans with dessert, but I’m open to giving it a try. 😉 This is just beautiful!! I love all of the layers.
★★★★★
Congratulations on making the blogging finals, Raymund–you richly deserve it!
Halo-halo is so beautiful to look at it seems it would be a crime to destroy the dish by eating it. But I think that of many beautiful foods, I suppose, and have so little self-restraint that if I were around some of this (even so beautifully prepared by you) I’m sure I would soon give in and discover how delicious it is, too. 🙂 I’ve seen it before and know how popular it is, so it’s great to see here how it’s made.
★★★★★
Congratulations for being on the finals!! Good job, Raymund!!!
★★★★★
sarap nyan lalo ngayon g summer….paorder bro…
Hi Raymund! Your halo-halo looks perfect! Thanks for that excellent idea of using frozen milk in substitute for shredded ice. I’m just so grateful for it coz I can now create my own personal halo-halo even with-out ice shredder. Very helpful indeed!
And yes, congratulations for making it to the finals on that Philippine Blog Awards. You certainly deserve more than that!
★★★★★
Like an ice kacang ! DELICIOUS !
★★★★★
‘allo ‘allo! Hey Ray, I have a question for you. (sorry this is not on topic) But you are our resident food historian. Do you have a source that will tell us why Russian fudge is called Russian. It is very NZ, plus is adapted from a scottish fudge called Tablet. The Russians have no real fudge in their culture at all. That is all I know. Where do i go to find out more?..How is Queen st this morning.. c
This is the only source on the net which talks about it probable origin http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-russian-fudge.htm.
And it is so muggy here, Drizzling and so humid, Auckland is having its 4 seasons in a day tantrums again.
thank you hon, i will zip over and look, hope you get out to the beach soon then!
Congrats!!! You definitely deserve it. And the vanilla ice cream included in this dish will definitely make me try this recipe 🙂
wow…interesting drink! Jackfruit is my fav!
This is the Halo Halo which u mentioned last time?
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Yes from your Snowflake post.
Until I started making “dessert hummus,” I would never have understood how this could be good and sweet. Now I just want to make it! What an interesting dessert!
★★★★★
what a great shot of halo-halo!
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I don’t care if its cold season or summer, I want halo-halo every other day. Nice award, you deserve it!
Halo-Halo is my absolute favorite! My husband doesn’t like it (for shame!) but that just means there’s more for me 🙂 Congratulations on your nomination!
Congratulations!!! How exciting and so well deserved. This yummy dessert looks beautiful and very different than what I am used to eating for dessert. I would love to try it!
★★★★★
I love Filipino food. The food in the Philippines is amazing. I could eat it everyday.
★★★★★
Greetings!
I would like to ask for your permission to make use of the images on your website for a project in a Web Development class in school. It’s for a completely academic and non-commercial purpose. We will also provide a link to your site as part of the image sources.
Please e-mail me for your response. Thank you!
Best regards,
Chesca
★★★★★
OMG my favorate in the summer
★★★★★