About this recipe
Shaved ice over a layer of sweetened preserves, drowned in evaporated milk and topped with ube halaya, leche flan and ice cream. Halo-halo means 'mix-mix', and that is an instruction: the glass is built in layers and then stirred into a single cold, sweet, textured mess before it is eaten. There is no fixed list of components and households and stalls argue about them. What matters technically is that the ice is shaved rather than crushed, and that the preserves sit underneath rather than floating on top.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 tall glasses
- Prep
- 30 minutes (plus chilling)
- Cook
- 20 minutes for the saba bananas
- Total
- 50 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains dairy (evaporated milk, ice cream) and egg (leche flan). Contains coconut.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The sweet layers, about 2 tbsp of each per glass
- 1/2 cup (120 g) sweetened red kidney beans in syrup
- 1/2 cup (120 g) sweetened garbanzo beans in syrup
- 1/2 cup (120 g) nata de coco (coconut gel), drained
- 1/2 cup (120 g) kaong (sugar palm fruit) in syrup, drained
- 1/2 cup (120 g) macapuno (coconut sport strings) in syrup
- 4 saba bananas, or 2 firm plantains, peeled and cut into 1/2 in (1 cm) slices
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar and 1/2 cup (120 ml) water, for poaching the bananas
The ice and milk
- 8 cups (about 1.2 kg) finely shaved ice
- 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) evaporated milk, well chilled
- 4 tbsp (50 g) sugar, or to taste
The toppings
- 1/2 cup (150 g) ube halaya (see #55), chilled
- 4 small slices leche flan (about 4 oz / 115 g total)
- 4 small scoops ube or mango ice cream
- 4 tbsp (20 g) pinipig (toasted pounded young rice) or toasted rice flakes (optional)
Equipment
- Ice shaver, or a food processor that can crush ice finely
- 4 tall glasses, about 16 oz (475 ml)
- Small saucepan
- Long spoons
Method
- Poach the saba bananas: bring the 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water to a simmer in the small saucepan, add the banana slices and cook 12-15 minutes over low heat, until soft and slightly translucent. Cool completely in the syrup, then chill.
- Drain the nata de coco and the kaong. Keep the beans, macapuno and bananas in a little of their own syrup.
- Chill every component thoroughly, along with the glasses. Warm preserves will melt the ice on contact.
- Build each glass: spoon about 2 tbsp each of kidney beans, garbanzos, nata de coco, kaong, macapuno and poached banana into the bottom, in visible layers rather than mixed.
- Pack shaved ice over the preserves, mounding it above the rim of the glass. Press it down lightly with the back of a spoon so it holds its shape.
- Stir the 4 tbsp sugar into the chilled evaporated milk until dissolved, then pour it slowly over the ice in each glass until the ice is saturated and the milk just begins to show at the base.
- Top each glass with a spoonful of ube halaya, a slice of leche flan and a scoop of ice cream.
- Scatter with pinipig if using and serve immediately, with a long spoon and instructions to stir everything together before eating.
The Complete Edition
Halo-Halo sits in the Philippines chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Philippines chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.