Halo-Halo (Manila Shaved-Ice Everything Dessert) 🍧

Name: Halo-Halo (Manila Shaved-Ice Everything Dessert)
Prep time: 24 min
Cook time: 36 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 1 can each: sweetened jackfruit strips, ginitang mung beans (red), mung beans (green), kaong palm fruit; 1 jar macapuno (coconut sport) strings, drained, 150 g; 100 g pinipig (toasted young rice) or toasted puffed rice; 150 g ube halaya (purple yam jam; recipe below short-form); 6 slices leche flan (or 200 g crème caramel); 400 ml very sweetened condensed milk, chilled; 1 L milk ice: freeze 500 ml evaporated milk + 300 ml water + 80 g sugar into thin sheets, or use water ice; 4 scoops vanilla or ube ice cream; Evaporated milk for drizzling; optional marshmallows; cornflakes; sago pearls

The name means 'mix-mix,' and halo-halo deserves it: a tall glass engineered in edible layers — sweetened jackfruit, mango, lanones, pinipig toasted rice, kaong palm fruit, red and green mung beans, macapuno coconut sport, ube halaya and leche flan on top — buried under a mountain of shaved milk ice, then crowned with vanilla or ube ice cream and a drizzle of evaporated milk. It is the Philippines' answer to the monsoon heat, a dessert that doubles as dessert archaeology. The ritual matters: dump it all together in the bowl before eating, which is exactly why it's called halo-halo.

Luzon Filipino ⏱ 60 min Medium

Method

1

Quick ube halaya: steam 250 g purple yam, mash with 60 g condensed milk, 40 g butter and a pinch of salt; cook in a pan 8 min until thick. Cool.
2

If using block milk ice: shave it fine with a cleaver or pulse frozen cubes in a food processor until snow-flake thin (do not powder it).
3

Build the glass in visible layers: spoon 1 tbsp of each bean/fruit — red beans, green beans, jackfruit, kaong, macapuno — around the inner wall first so the layers show through.
4

Add a scatter of pinipig, a spoon of ube halaya, then pack shaved ice up to 3 cm from the rim. Drizzle condensed milk generously (2-3 tbsp per glass).
5

Top with the leche flan slice arched like a roof, one scoop of ice cream, a sprinkle of pinipig, and a slow pour of evaporated milk until it seeps the whole column.
6

Serve at once with a long spoon and a separate empty bowl — the correct first move is to dump and 'halo' (mix) everything before the first taste.

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Halo-Halo (Manila Shaved-Ice Everything Dessert) 🍧

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