Ube Haleya/Halaya/Jaleya - the Basics

From ube haleya
UPDATE [2-3-09]
I cooked this again recently, and came up with my own recipe using the grated uncooked ube in the photos below.

Ingredients:
2 (16-oz grated ube, uncooked - I used Lucia brand)
(food coloring is optional if your ube is pale)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter (or 1 stick if you want)
1 can (14-oz) condensed milk
1 can (12-oz) evap milk
1& 1/2 cups sugar (depends on your taste)
Optional: 4 oz cream cheese, room temp (makes it yummier!)

Method:
Puree the grated ube. On low heat, melt the butter, add ube, condensed, and evap milk. Stir constantly (may have to add a little water from time to time to make sure it gets cooked and remain unburnt). Add sugar according to your taste. Cook until sticky/gooey to your desired consistency. Remove from heat and add the cream cheese, stir until melted in.

I placed these in sterilized jars and processed in boiling water canner for 30 minutes. I am now experimenting on shelf-life. I have one jar out in room temp and I check daily if it starts to grow mold. After two weeks, I will open it and see if it is not ruined (I hope it won't!). Meanwhile, I have the rest in jars also (I made a total of 5 8-oz jars with some excess to eat) placed in the fridge for future cooking/baking experiments.
12/8/2011 update: It was a failure when I canned. The jars had molds after a while, both in the fridge and that one in room temp. Maybe I should have pressure cooked...will try next time.

This will be my basic ube haleya recipe, which I will use to make ube cream cheese filling, ube cake roll, ube buttercream frosting, ube ice cream, ube ensaymada, and ube hopia in the future.
~~~~~~~~~
I am actually not ready to post about this yet...If not for my promise earlier, I would not post this now. But I want to keep my promise.

I have made ube haleya out of what ingredient I had -- grated uncooked ube -- by trial and error. I have not come up with a good proportion of ingredients to make a final recipe here. (I have not tried making haleya using the powder form...or have I? Maybe I did and failed to achieve a satisfactory result.)

After I made the basic ube haleya, I experimented making ube cake, using both powdered and the haleya I made. It ended up in tragedy, mainly because I was not following a tried and tested recipe. I had my own theories I wanted to prove, and they were proven wrong...teehee! Ngek!

Anyway, out of the ube cake experiment, I made a filling which turned out yummy, enough to make up for the bad turn out of the cake itself. I had some leftover of that which I placed in the fridge.

Then just a while ago, when I had another craving for ube haleya, I took out of the fridge the little haleya that was remaining, and the other jar of the filling which I mistakenly thought of as another unfinished jar of haleya. When I realized it was the filling, I added it to the haleya (instead of the usual butter that I add), 1 part of filling to 2 parts of haleya. Then I reheated in the microwave for 30 seconds...an accidental mistake since I was not really planning on heating up the filling.

Oh well, I thought I would just mix the two together, maybe it would turn out okay anyway...

And what resulted was probably what I would label as the yummiest ube haleya I have ever tasted in my whole life...

Now I am on a quest to come up with a clear recipe to recreate that...And since right now I have no exact measurements, let me just describe to you how I made the basic ube haleya that I came up with...then I will follow with the post of the filling that I made for the cake (never mind the cake! I will experiment again on that later). During these times, I should be coming up with a well-defined recipe for the yummiest ube haleya I have ever had.

So what I will share here with you is the "how" of my ube haleya adventure.

The basics:

Researching the internet for recipes showed me to "boil the ube first then mash." My dilemma was not even knowing whether my grated ube was already boiled then mashed. I took two 14-oz packages of grated ube (pale in color) then cooked it with 1/2 stick of butter, 1 can of condensed milk and some (I added probably a cup) whole milk, all the while stirring the saucepan until the mixture was quite getting dried up...but I would try to taste and it would still be gritty...as if not yet fully cooked (that's the point that I realized the grated ube was uncooked, really). So, I was already considering of just throwing everything away...I just felt it was a disaster...but I thought better of it. My stubborn self just had to seek ways to resolve the dilemma.

I added 1/2 cup plain water to further cook without scorching...then I thought of pureeing the mixture to make the ube more homogenous...I added some more (1/2 cup) cold water, stirred, then dumped into my food processor. I pureed for about 2 minutes each batch (filled to max line). Then I proceeded to cook on the stovetop. When it felt like it was cooked, I adjusted the taste by added more granulated sugar, with 1/2 cup increments, until I was satisfied with the taste. At the same time, I adjusted the purple coloring by adding drops of food coloring. I did not want it to be too intense (it just felt too unnatural for me). Good thing it did not affect the taste. I also added 1 tbsp of butter every now and then until I was satisfied. I stopped when I achieved the consistency that I wanted (I did not want it too pasty. I wanted it to have more body, unlike those in the jar, which to me are too runny/soft, not to mention to artificially tasting.

There...I had ube haleya to enjoy and experiment with to make ube cake for the days that followed...I liked eating it with slathered with butter. My younger son liked it plain. My older son was freaked out with the purple color...(hindi ata nakatikim nung nasa Pinas pa). This will be the same filling I will use for hopiang ube.

Next: How I made that nice ube filling...

For now, let me experiment with my next batch of haleya to come up with a good recipe for it.



Comments

  1. Hi Manang!
    I admire you for not throwing it away and I believe you did a good job!
    I only tried the powder form and made pastillas out of it. I simply followed my grandma's ever simple ingredients each time she'd make her halaya. More condensed milk than evap. Though she used ube roots and I powder, I thought (or hoped) I could get the same consistency...and I did.
    btw manang, my lola always used cheese cloth th sip out ube juice (kasi walang machine pa nuon) and that gave her halaya a sooo perfect consistency! maybe u can try using a cheese cloth?

    ang daldal ko...will try to visit as musch a spossible, have a good weekend!

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  2. oiiii gusto ko yan, san ka kumuha ng ube ate?

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  3. hi thess,
    I decided against throwing it away because if I failed on those first two packages, I had 6 more in the freezer that I would probably end up throwing away, too. So I kept myself focused on the task and finally got what I wanted.
    Actually, I liked having some bits to bite on, I was just wondering why it was taking so long to cook, hence I pureed it and it seemed to have done the trick.
    I need to visit more other blogs more often...

    chubs,
    binili ko sa Asian store (2 hrs to drive).

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  4. wow! this one looks majorly yummy! btw, what's the shelf life of this? may i freeze it and take it out as needed?

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  5. hahhaa.. atta girl! we shouldn't give up on our food, if there's a will, there's a way, huh? you did a good job. I love ube haleya.. if only i can find ube here.. :o(

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  6. Hello Manang! I missed you. Thanks for adding me as a friend. I have to visit your food blog more often nakaka-inspire mag-luto. I love ube!

    Take care and keep warm.

    Tina of mygoodfinds.org

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  7. caren,
    I am experimenting with canning it to observe shelf life. I would think freezing it and microwaving when you are ready to consume shoul dbe fine.

    Jescel,
    maybe you can try looking for the powder...I think you can order them online...probably. I have read several blogs where they used ube powder and had good results.

    Hi tina,
    Actually ako ang may utang...I seldom find the time to blog hop!

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  8. I HAVEN'T HAD ANY UBE HALEYA BEFORE AND I DON'T KNOW EITHER HOW IT TASTES LIKE. OF COURSE! HEHEHE... I MIGHT WANT TO TRY THIS WHENEVER I SEE SOME UBE SOMEDAY! IT IS LIKE A POI! HEHEHE

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  9. Hi Manang,I bought some frozen grated ube and darker so I do not have to use food color. I just follow the rest of your ingredients.Thank you.I will try this weekend.

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  10. inday,
    san ka naglagi at di ka pa nakatikim ng ube haleya???

    Hi Luz,
    Naku, damihan mo, at maghanda ka rin ng 8-oz jars na pwede mo i-sterilize para tumagal sa fridge. or i-freeze mo yung iba, i-thaw mo pag ready ka gamitin...nakaka-addict sya eh.

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  11. hi manang ask ko lang papaano magiging sangkap ng ube halaya kung ang gagamitin ko eh ube powder kasi alang ube dito. salamat

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  12. Hi Manang, another excellent recipe from u! I tried it this pm and went out good. But, there are few things that I omitted and added. What I did was I used fresh purple yam, omitted the food coloring and added Nestle Table Cream. It went out well and it's creaaamy! Thanks to u manang... Next project wud b ube roll. hehe

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  13. Hi Anonymous,
    Sorry, I thought I had answered your question before! anyway, there are quite a few recipes online that uses ube powder.

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  14. Hi Mai,
    Lucky you, you have access to fresh purple yam!
    So you added Nestle Table Cream (without omitting the condensed and evap?). How much did you use?

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  15. hi manang, question lang po. dito po kasi sa canada may naka pack na ube at purple na yung color nya. mas okay po ba gamitin yun? di na ako mag grate ng ube.hehe. and cook ko na with the rest of the ingredients?

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  16. oopps! sorry di ko po nakita na may slide show that you use the frozen once. =p

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  17. Hi jane,
    buti meron dyan available na purple talaga. I should have chosen the more purple ube when I bought the frozen packs. Kala ko kasi me halong daya. Yun pala, pag hindi inalis masyado yung outer layer, ganon talaga ka-purple.

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  19. hi,ask ko lng po pwede po ba gmitin yng ubi na nsa buti

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  20. may nkita po kc akong ubi hali
    eya nsa bote ba yon o garapon
    ,ok po ba yon gmitin,thanks po

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  21. Hi Anonymous,
    Okay lang yon. Ang tanong, masarap ba sya? Baka kelangan mo i-adjust yung taste (like add butter or condensed milk at iluto mo sa low heat na panay ang halo) bago mo makuha yung masarap na lasa.

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  22. hi manang,

    the filling you use for the esamada and hopia is just the plain haleya? it looks to be more firm in texture... i've tried searching the blog but i haven't found any recipes for your ube fillings... thanks.

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  23. Hi Anonymous,
    Yes this is the one. Just cook longer to dry it out more so you will have a firmer texture (take note that chilling it in the fridge will also make it firmer).
    Then I use the plain haleya to mix with other ingredients to make ube cream cheese frosting, ube ice cream, ube cake, etc.

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  24. hi manang. we got lots of purple potato from our garden last garden season. i've been thinking if its ok to make haleya using the potato. we do canning, too. have you checked the shelf life of your haleya?

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  25. Hi Anonymous,
    I got no luck with canning ube haleya using BWB (had molds after 2 weeks. I think I will have to pressure can it. But I do not feel like experimenting on that yet...I am so much in the mood for Christmas right now, and my pressure canner is tucked away...
    Also, I have not had any purple potato and so I do not know how it tastes like, so I cannot really offer any input on that. You can definitely try making haleya using the same method, and if it is not that creamy, try adding softened cream cheese as well.

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  26. We can get fresh purple yam which is shipped in from Maui, Hawaii. Maybe you can ask your local grocer to contact the suppliers from Hawaii.

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  27. Tess, thanks for that idea! I will try to see if Hannaford will do so. Sana nga, so I would not have to travel 2 hrs everytime I need some Asian products.

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  28. Hi Manang! Just to make sure I understand, did you use the recipe above (Ube Halaya mixed with cream cheese) as the 2/3 Cup Ube Halaya called for in your Ube cake roll recipe? I've made ube cake before and it turned out to dense. I am hoping the Ube cake roll is the recipe I am looking for. Hoping to hear from you soon! Thanks :)

    Cyn

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cyn, No I used the plain ube haleya (just with condensed, evap and butter withouto the cream cheese). However, after I made the ube cream cheese frosting for the ube cake that I made, I tried mixing some of that with the plain ube haleya and it was yummy!

      Delete
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  30. Hi Manang.. good morning. just wannan know if u have RICE CAKE recipe? yung malagkit rice with egg and milk.. so yummy ang ube halaya mo..i made it last week and it was a hit. thanks for your love in sharing your recipe ha.. super big help tlga.

    kind regards

    Shawee

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    Replies
    1. Hi Shawee,
      Sorry I have no idea exactly what it is you are looking for except maybe bibingka cake that I made? Try to look at my bibingka cake with a twang and see if that's what you are looking for.

      Thanks for your feedback on my ube haleya! You just made my day after reading a nasty comment that basically doubts the authenticity of my recipes and my claims.

      Delete
  31. I just made ube cake. I usually use the PINILI brand grated ube but it's not available so I used the LUCIA brand. I notice the difference in texture. The PINILI brand is more pino though I assume (after reading this post) hindi rin sya luto. But i really thought these frozen grated ube were boiled. Kaya pala ganun ang texture may buo-buo pa. Kala ko naman dahil sa ginamit na gilingan or hindi silky yong mismong variety ng ube. Meron kasing ube na hindi malabo (that's how we describe silky in tagalog). I use plain grated ube in my recipe, then I mix haleya to the buttercream...I will experiment on pureeing my ube and adding water to make sure it cooks well...

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    Replies
    1. Hi Nina, I have not seen a PINILI brand of ube! But I am glad I recently found chunks of ube (I think they were probably blanched before packed.)

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  32. ask ko lang po pwede po ba i substitute ng carrot sa halaya?
    4 research purposes?
    ano po ba health benefits na makukuga sa halaya?
    tnxpo

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous,
      I hope you have done your homework/research. Please do not ask me for answers to your supposed research. That's not the best way to learn.

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  33. Hello, Manang. I just made this today with a little cream cheese. Very rich and yummy! I'm looking at your other posts on how to use it in other recioes, that is, kung may matitira pa sa kakatikim ko. Hahaha! Thank you for sharing your recipes. You should come have your own cookbook - RR :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi RR,
      Well, thank you for the super-duper compliment! I hope you enjoy the other recipes :)

      Delete
  34. good day po... gusto ko po sana malaman.... paano po ba maging maligat o makunat ang halaya kapag niluto na?? nag luluto kasi ako b4 ...ok naman po pero may nakain po ako na medyo makunat..ano po yung nilalagay sa halaya?
    thanks po.

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