Filipino Recipes 1 - Sweet

As a tropical oriental country it should come as no surprise there are many treats in the Philippines are made from rice and coconuts. One often seen dessert is bibingka, a hot rice cake optionally topped with a pat of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese), itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut. There?are also glutinous rice sweets called biko made with sugar, butter, and coconut milk. Another brown rice cake is kutsinta. Puto is another well known example of sweet steamed rice cakes prepared in many different sizes and colors. Sapin-sapin are three-layered, tri-colored sweets made with rice flour, purple yam, and coconut milk with its gelatinous appearance. Palitaw are rice patties covered with sesame seeds, sugar, and coconut; pitsi-pitsi which are cassava patties coated with cheese or coconut; and tibok-tibok is based on carabao milk as a de leche (similar to maja blanca). As a snack, binatog is created with corn kernels with shredded coconut. Packaged snacks wrapped in banana or palm leaves then steamed, suman are made from sticky rice.

For cold desserts there is halo-halo which can be described as a dessert made with shaved ice, milk, and sugar with additional ingredients like coconut, halaya (mashed purple yam), caramel custard, plantains, jackfruit, red beans, tapioca and pinipig being typical. Other similar treats made with shaved ice include saba con yelo which is shaved ice served with milk and minatamis na saging (ripe plantains chopped and caramelized with brown sugar); mais con yelo which is shaved ice served with steamed corn kernels, sugar, and milk; and buko pandan sweetened grated strips of coconut with gulaman, milk, and the juice or extract from pandan leaves. Sorbetes (ice cream) is popular too. A local version uses coconut milk instead of cow milk. Ice candy made from juice or chocolate put it in a freezer to freeze is another treat. It can be any kind of flavor depending on the maker; chocolate and buko (coconut) flavored ice candy are two of the most popular.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is a type of bread that is made with mashed bananas. It is often a moist, sweet, cake-like quick bread; however, there are some banana bread recipes that are traditional-style yeast breads.?

Crema de Fruta

Crema de Fruta is a Filipino dessert elaborately made-up of sponge cake, topped in succeeding layers of sweet syrup, custard, candied fruit (fruit cocktail), and gelatine.

Sapin-sapin, a Filipino delicacy, sprinkled with crumbs?

Sapin-sapin is a layered glutinous rice and coconut dessert in Filipino cuisine. It is made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar, water, and coloring with coconut flakes sprinkled on top. Sapin-sapin means "layers" and the dessert is recognizable for its layers, each colored separately. It has been referred to as "a blancmange of several colored layers, sweetened and flavored with coconut milk".

Photo Credit: Eugene Alvin Villar

Leche Flan

Leche Flan ? literally milk flan ? a heavier version of the Spanish flan made with condensed milk and more egg yolks. Leche Flan is usually steamed over an open flame or stove top, although rarely it can also be seen baked. Leche Flan is a staple in celebratory feasts.

Cassava Cake

Cassava Cake is a classic Filipino dessert made from grated cassava or manioc, a woody shrub where the starch that is used to make tapioca are derived.