Filipino Desserts – Filipino cuisine has several types of desserts featuring different ingredients. Generally, Filipino desserts are not overly sweet and amplify simple ingredients. Among these ingredients, ube is one of the most popular ingredients used. Otherwise known as purple yam, ube is a popular flavoring for different desserts. Another popular ingredient is coconut. Aside from this, you’ll find plenty of flavor combinations in the dessert category. A few classic desserts you can find in the Philippines include an egg pudding called leche flan and an ice dessert with different ingredients called halo-halo. Desserts in the Philippines are sweet and relatively simple to make.
There are also cases where some classic dishes get a twist. If you are interested in trying desserts from the Philippines, these are a few categories.
Bread and Pastries
Bread is one of the most popular snacks you’ll find in the Philippines. When it comes to dessert bread, there are plenty of bread types that involve sugar. There are also snack bread types that involve cheese, ube, or both. If you want to know some Filipino bread and pastries dishes to try, these are a few options you can check out:
Ube Hopia: Hopia is a traditional Filipino pastry dish that usually round in shape with an inch or so in width and mung bean paste known as monggo. It is not limited to one flavor however and tastes great with popular Filipino flavors like ube.
Ube Ensaymada: There are plenty of Filipino sweets that mix sweet and savory flavors and ensaymada is one of them. Ensaymada is a type of Filipino brioche bun with buttercream spread and cheese as a topping. Ube, a.k.a. purple yam, also pairs well as a filling, thus, you get Ube Ensaymada.
Ube Cheese Pandesal: Pandesal is a classic Filipino bread that makes for a great snack. As a plain bread, it pairs well with different spreads and fillings. One popular flavor combination in the Philippines is ube and cheese. With this variation, you get both with an ube base bread and cheese filling.
Ube Cheese Cupcakes: Ever had a savory cupcake? A Filipino cheese cupcake is definitely one to try if you’re interested. THis cupcake is basically a fluffy butter base with a crisp cheese crust for the top.
Ube Cake; You can try various Filipino cakes and one of them is ube cake. This cake basically consists of an ube flavored sponge cake with buttercream frosting. One of the best ube cakes you can get in the Philippines is from Red Ribbon, a cake shop that’s based in the Philippines.
Ube Pie: Jollibee is a prominent fast food chain in the Philippines and one popular dessert is ube pie. This ube pie is basically a fried pie pocket with filling and ube pie is basically a pie with ube jam.
Classics and Alternatives
There are plenty of classic Filipino desserts you can know about and sample. You’ll also find that a number of them come with alternative flavors to change things up. If you want to get an idea of a few classic desserts and their alternatives, these are some to check out:
Pichi Pichi Cassava: You can find plenty of sticky rice desserts in Filipino cuisine and pichi pichi cassava is one of them. What is this dessert? It is a gelatinous dessert made from cassava, sugar and water/coconut juice then topped with coconut shavings or cheese.
Ube Biko: Biko is a traditional sticky rice dessert that’s usually topped with a topping known as latik. Said topping is a coconut-type topping that consists of either or both coconut curds or the syrupy caramel-like variant. Usually, the flavor base of this dessert is plain rice with brown sugar and coconut but there is an ube base variation you can try as well.
Ube Turon: There are several Filipino street snacks to try and turon is one of them. Turon is basically a sweet version of a spring roll with grilled banana filling. One way you can enjoy this treat is with the addition of ube jam.
Ube Leche Flan: If you like custard desserts then you should try Leche Flan. Usually, leche flan is a plain egg custard with a caramel topping. One way this dish can be changed up is the addition of ube flavoring to the base.
Other Dessert Variations
While there are plenty of classic Filipino desserts you can try, there are also other desserts featuring Filipino flavoring like ube. Here are a few desserts featuring ube:
Ube Brownies: Ube has a generally sweet and earthy flavoring that pairs well with different flavors. If you want to add some richness to the delightful dessert that is brownies, putting ube jam in the mix is one way to shift things.
Ube Macarons: There is no shortage of macaron flavors you can try. If you want to try something different and get a taste of Filipino desserts, ube macarons is one way to get a peek.
Ube Cinnamon Rolls: Cinnamon rolls are rich by themselves, but if you want to change things up and get a sweet and earthy dessert, having ube jam as the filling can make a stark difference.
Ube Butter Mochi: Enjoy a different take on a Hawaiin treat with this soft and sticky sweet with ube flavoring and a buttery depth topped with a coconut crust.
Ube Mochi Pancakes: Pancakes are already a fluffy treat but have you ever wanted to make them even better. This fluffy and chewy take on the classic breakfast treat brings some distinct flavoring with ube in its mix.
While there are plenty of ube variations of Filipino desserts, it is one way to introduce your palette to Filipino flavors. You can still try out plenty of other Filipino desserts aside from the ones noted.
