Halo-halo
The name means mix-mix in Tagalog and describes how it is eaten: the layers are built with care, then everything is stirred together before the first spoonful. It is an assembly, so success rests on two things. The ice must be shaved to snow, not crushed to cubes — coarse pieces take up no milk and stay hard. And every component must be chilled separately, since warm beans or tapioca melt the ice within a minute and the dessert becomes sweet soup.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Jelly 180 min
- Tapioca 30 min
- Shaving the ice 10 min
- Assembly 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the jelly ahead
Dissolve the jelly in a quarter less water than the packet says and leave it in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours (it can be the day before). Firmer jelly keeps its cube shape in the ice; regular jelly quickly softens on contact with the milk.
Ingredients: 150 g sweet red beans · 1 pcs jelly powder · 60 g tapioca pearls · 1 pcs mango · 1 pcs banana · 40 g coconut flakes · 60 g sugar
Cut the jelly into even cubes
Cut the set jelly into 1 cm cubes and keep them chilled. Even cubes are not fussiness — every layer shows through the glass, and ragged pieces look like a collapsed dessert.
Ingredients: 150 g sweet red beans · 1 pcs jelly powder · 60 g tapioca pearls · 1 pcs mango · 1 pcs banana · 40 g coconut flakes · 60 g sugar
Centimetre cubes — firm jelly survives the ice.Cook the tapioca and chill it in syrup
Boil the pearls in plenty of water 20–25 minutes, until clear with a tiny white dot at the centre, drain and rinse in cold water. Boil the rest of the sugar (about 45 g) with 100 ml water and the pandan leaf, if using, and pour this syrup over the tapioca. Chill completely. Warm tapioca melts ice within a minute.
Ingredients: 150 g sweet red beans · 1 pcs jelly powder · 60 g tapioca pearls · 1 pcs mango · 1 pcs banana · 40 g coconut flakes · 60 g sugar
Simmer the banana in syrup
Simmer the banana slices 3 minutes in a spoonful of sugar with a little water, until glassy, then chill. In the Philippines halo-halo gets saba bananas stewed in syrup; cooked banana is sweeter, firmer and darkens more slowly than raw.
Ingredients: 150 g sweet red beans · 1 pcs jelly powder · 60 g tapioca pearls · 1 pcs mango · 1 pcs banana · 40 g coconut flakes · 60 g sugar
Shave the ice to snow
Reduce the ice to fine snow — in an ice shaver, a blender with an ice-crush setting, or by grating a frozen block. Whole cubes or coarse chunks will not do: they absorb no milk, stay hard and shatter the whole construction under the spoon.
Ingredients: 1000 ml water · 120 g sweetened condensed milk · 250 ml milk
Layer the components at the bottom
Chill the glasses in the freezer for a quarter of an hour beforehand. Into each put a spoonful of each component: beans, jelly, tapioca, banana, mango and coconut. Heaviest at the bottom.
Ingredients: 150 g sweet red beans · 1 pcs jelly powder · 60 g tapioca pearls · 1 pcs mango · 1 pcs banana · 40 g coconut flakes · 60 g sugar
A spoon of each — heaviest at the bottom.Heap on the ice and pour over milk
Pile a tall mound of shaved ice over the components, drizzle with condensed milk, then pour over the cold milk. The milk should run down through the ice and soak it, not sit in a pool at the bottom.
Ingredients: 1000 ml water · 120 g sweetened condensed milk · 250 ml milk
A mound of ice with milk running down through it.Crown with ice cream and serve with a long spoon
Set a scoop of ice cream on top and serve at once with a long spoon. The eater does the mixing — hence the name. Halo-halo does not wait: within minutes the ice starts to melt.
Ingredients: 4 pcs vanilla ice cream · 1 pcs pandan leaf
Before you start
The components are free, the rule is not
In the Philippines anything sweet goes into halo-halo: jackfruit, sweet potato, chickpeas in syrup, pinipig rice flakes, leche flan. Number and kind are open — only snow-fine ice and chilled components are non-negotiable.
Ube, the purple yam
The traditional crown is ube ice cream or jam, made from a purple yam with a flavour often likened to vanilla and nuts. Hard to find outside Asia; vanilla ice cream is a good substitute.
Most components ahead
Jelly, banana and beans keep up to three days in the fridge in separate tubs. Tapioca is best cooked on the day, as it hardens in the fridge. Assembly then takes a few minutes. Always shave the ice at the last moment.
