The popular Ube drink took the United States by storm when it made its presence in hipster cafes, and overpriced chains. However, the Ube Halaya Jam has been around forever and is a Filipino specialty dessert that is used in a variety of recipes from meats, desserts, drinks, bread, and more!
You might be thinking, “well why do I care about ube halaya? I just want a cute purple coffee!”….. Well you need ube halaya or another variation of ube syrup, ube sauce to create amazing purple potent drinks. The strong color of purple and the subtle nutty profile with notes of vanilla all stem from a good ube halaya base. If you mess up your base, you might as well toss your coffee because youre not going to get the taste or color that comes from a good ube drink. Furthermore, ube halaya is a part of Filipino culture, and should be treated with respect ☺️.
This post is all about creating the perfect ube halaya so you go on ahead and make delicious drinks, desserts, teas, boba drinks, and more ☺️.

Commonly Asked Questions For Ube Halaya
What is Ube Halaya?
Ube Halaya is a jam made out of Ube Purple yams, milk, and sweeteners. This Filipino specialty is an important part of their culture, and they have carefully perfected it to be the amazing Halaya we know today. Even more importantly, we hope Filipino food can grow in popularity just as this specialty jam has done. To read more about the history of Ube jam you can check out this article from Veena from BBC. As for their specialty Halaya, The jam starts off being cooked with all of the necessary ingredients, and then when it cools down it becomes a thick ube paste or jam. this ube jam or ube halaya is super popular for pairing well with desserts such as ice creams, cakes, and many other sweets and treats!
Can you eat Ube Raw?
Ube should be cooked before being eaten. This is because uncooked raw ube has quite a few toxins in it. Therefore, they must be cooked out before the Ube can be eaten.
What does Ube Halaya taste like?
Ube Halaya made from Ube Purple Yams is sweet, creamy, and rich making it the perfect pairing for most desserts, flavors like vanilla and coconut, and sweet treat recipes.
How do you eat Ube Halaya?
Ube Halaya with its rich sweet taste can be eaten with just about any sweet treat. It pairs very well with white chocolate, cake, ice cream, coconut, vanilla and so many more sweet treats and flavors. It can also be used in various recipes to make drinks, desserts, and other treats.
How do you make Ube Halaya?
Ube Halaya is made using several types of milk, sweeteners, extracts, and Ube purple yams. You cook the mixture over the stove and once it’s all cooked and it cools you’ll notice it starts to thicken to form a paste-like Ube jam.
Are Ube and Taro the same thing?
While Ube and Taro are both tuberous root vegetables they are entirely different in their taste and appearance. They look somewhat similar with both having dark thicker outer skin. However, the inside of an Ube Purple Yam is literally purple while Taro is typically white-fleshed with some purple specks in it. The taste of Ube is pretty sweet and subtle typically only really used in sweets while Taro is a little more starchy and nutty and can be added to savory foods.

Ube Halaya ingredients and things you need
Ingredients:
Ube Purple Yams: Frozen, fresh, etc.
Ube Extract
Vanilla Extract
Brown Sugar
Butter
Salt
Coconut milk
Evaporated milk
Sweetened condensed milk, both regular and ube flavor
Equipment:
Stovetop
Deep pan
Immersion blender, blender, etc.
Measuring cups and measuring spoons
Spoon for stirring
Storage jars or containers for the jam
Ube Halaya Recipe
This Recipe is Perfect for Making Delicous Ube Lattes and Ube Syrup!
Recipe Calls For:
- 1 can evaporate milk
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 0.5 can sweeten condensed milk
- 0.5 can ube condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons ube extract
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1.75 pounds of frozen mashed purple yams
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
How to make Ube Halaya
This recipe calls for thawed frozen mashed yams, however, fresh yams can be boiled first and then used for this recipe as well. The yams will need to be blended later on to form a fine puree.



Instructions:
- Thaw your frozen mashed yams.
- melt butter in a deep pan over the stovetop.
- add your evaporated milk, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, and Ube condensed milk to the pan and heat over medium heat while stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- add in your thawed Ube purple yams and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then let the mixture cook for about 30 more minutes while stirring often to prevent sticking.
- use an immersion blender to turn the mashed Ube yams into a fine puree. If you don’t have an immersion blender you can also transfer the mixture to a heat-safe blender to turn the mixture into a fine puree.
- stir in vanilla and Ube extracts and add salt.
- Let the mixture cool and form a thick jam.
- Transfer jam to storage containers and store in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

That Wraps up our post for creating tasty and full of flavor ube halaya! We hope you enjoyed this recipe and if you did make sure to pin it for later =)