Ube Halaya Recipe

It was brought to my attention (thanks @proseccoandpaperbacks!) that my ube halaya recipe was missing from my site. It was an old blog post and when I migrated to my new site, it must've gotten lost in the mix. Sorry to anyone who came here looking for the recipe and couldn't find it!

This is a quickie post, just for those of you who want to make Lila's Ube Crinkles ASAP, but I'll be updating it later with pictures.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound purple yam - fresh or frozen (thawed), grated

• 1 can (10 fl oz) sweetened condensed milk

• 1 can (13.5 fl oz) coconut milk*

• 1 can (12.5 fl oz) evaporated milk

• ½ cup butter

• ½ cup sugar

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. Stir ingredients together until sugar dissolves, then lower heat to low-medium.

3. Cook for 20-40 minutes, stirring regularly and scraping the bottom.

4. Once it's reached your desired consistency**, transfer it to a container*** and let it cool.

5. Enjoy!

*If you're making this for someone with a coconut allergy, you can substitute a second can of evaporated milk for the coconut. If you want it to be dairy-free, you can sub in condensed coconut milk and two cans of coconut milk plus coconut oil for the butter.

**The finished consistency depends on what you plan on using the ube halaya for. If you're using it as an ingredient for another dessert (such as my cookies) then you want it soft and jammy, and just starting to pull away from the sides. If you're eating it as is, cook until it's very thick and pulls away from the side of the pan. It's delicious topped with grated cheese since the saltiness balances the sweetness of the ube halaya.

***The container you use depends on how you plan on using it. Since I keep mine like a soft jam, I reuse old jam jars. If you're serving it as is, it's traditional to use a llanera to mold it. This is the same type of pan that we use for leche flan, another traditional Filipino dessert.