Ube halaya is THE secret to making any ube dessert. Ube (pronouned ooh-beh), is a purple yam popular in Filipino desserts. Its distinctive purple colour is making waves across the world. The flavour profile goes with every dessert from ube ice-cream, ube cakes, and ube cookies. Some describe the ube taste to be a mix between pistachio and vanilla, and it is deeelicious!
In some places it can be hard to find ube halaya in stores. Store-bought ube halaya can also be quite sweet, depending on the brand. When you make your own, you know that you are adding in actual purple yam, and you can control the amount of sweetness.
I like this recipe because it’s less sweet, and you can put it on eeeverything. My favourite thing is to slaver it to make ube twist rolls.
Save this recipe to make your own ube halaya. It will elevate all your ube desserts to another level!
If you love ube, make sure you try the ube cake, ube ice cream and ube cookie recipes. They are scrumptious and don’t need special ingredients or equipment.
Share the ube love and tag your creations with @ultimateomnoms on Instagram so I can give you a shoutout!

Ube halaya
Ingredients
- 700 g frozen purple yam
- 240 ml coconut milk
- 235 g condensed milk
- 225 g castor sugar
- 1 tsp ube extract
- 110 g butter (cubed)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Chop the yam into cubes and steam until soft
- Add the yam, coconut milk, condensed milk, castor sugar and ube extract into your blender. Blitz until smooth
- Pour the mixture into a non-stick pan and cook until it thickens
- Once thickened, add in the butter, vanilla extract and salt
- It’s ready to be used or stored in an airtight container