Ube Bread Pudding w/ Ube Cream Cheese Drizzle

Ube (pronounced OO-bay), is a purple yam native to the Philippines and other areas of Southeast Asia. Ube is a very versatile ingredient. It is not a purple sweet potato or taro, it is a purple yam. Its special taste reminds one of vanilla, pistachios or chestnuts. The vibrant purple color inside and out is uniquely photogenic.

Ube has been used for decades in Filipino cuisine and has now caught on in North America, especially in the form of desserts.

When I first tried using it sometime back, it was in some sweet rolls that were filled with ube ‘halaya’ or jam and topped with Edam cheese. We absolutely loved them. My next adventure was some ube cheesecake for Easter (2019). Both of these recipes have been published here on the blog.

Now, I’m taking it another step further and making an Ube Bread Pudding. This dessert is best made over two days due to that fact that you are making the ube bread from scratch. Should be interesting!

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Ube Bread Pudding w/ Ube Cream Cheese Drizzle
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Servings
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (jam) Filling for Bread
Ube Bread Pudding
Ube Cream Cheese Drizzle
Servings
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (jam) Filling for Bread
Ube Bread Pudding
Ube Cream Cheese Drizzle
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Instructions
Ube Halaya
  1. In a medium, heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add coconut & condensed milks; stir until heated. Add thawed, grated ube & stir everything together. This process takes about 40-50 minutes until the ube is cooked. The mixture will be thick & sticky. It is important to stir the mixture often during cooking to prevent it from forming a crust. Transfer the ube halaya to a container & set aside.
Ube Bread
  1. In a small dish, heat milk to lukewarm. Add yeast & 1 tsp sugar; let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup sugar, melted butter, sour cream & egg. Add yeast mixture & stir to combine.
  2. In another bowl, whisk flour & salt. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture 1 cup at a time, combining after each addition. Once all the flour has been added, knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
  3. Lightly grease the large bowl, place dough in it & cover with plastic wrap & a tea towel. Allow to rest for at least one hour, in a draft-free place until dough has doubled in volume. Grate cheese & set aside in refrigerator until needed.
  4. Grease 2 loaf pans. Punch dough down & divide in half. Roll each piece out to about 7x7-inch (18x18 cm) square. Spread ube halaya over each one leaving about 1/2-inch border all the way around. Sprinkle each square with Edam cheese then roll up in jelly-roll style. Pinch to seal seams & place seam side down in loaf pans. Cover with plastic wrap & a tea towel. Allow to rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake bread for about 50 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven; cool for just a few minutes then pat with butter. Sprinkle with more grated cheese.
Ube Bread Pudding (ON THE FOLLOWING DAY)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 8 x 8-inch baking dish. Cut thick slices of ube bread into 1-inch cubes & spread out in baking dish. In a saucepan, melt butter into milk on medium-high; do not let it boil. Remove from heat when butter is melted.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk eggs & coconut extract together. Slowly pour egg mixture into butter/milk mixture & begin whisking immediately to avoid scrambling the egg mixture. Pour custard over the ube bread pieces; use a spoon to work liquid between the pieces.
  3. Bake for about 30-45 minutes or until the top is springy. While the bread pudding is baking, make the ube drizzle.
Ube Drizzle
  1. In a bowl, using a mixer, beat butter for 2 minutes then add cream cheese & beat for another minute. Add powdered sugar slowly then beat thoroughly; add vanilla. Mix in ube halaya until well combined. Add enough milk to make a drizzle consistency. Either drizzle bread pudding before or after cutting into serving pieces.
Recipe Notes
  • You will have extra Ube Bread & Ube Halaya but it will no doubt be eaten before you have a chance to freeze it. Other than just enjoying it by the slice, it makes great French toast as well.

Swiss Roll w/ Ube Halaya

Ube (pronounced ooo-bae) originated in the Philippines and refers to a bright purple yam. Ube is a very versatile ingredient. It is not a purple sweet potato or taro, it is a purple yam. Its unique taste reminds one of vanilla, pistachios or chestnuts. The vibrant purple color inside and out is uniquely photogenic.

Fresh ube seems to be fairly difficult to find in North America but with a little persistence it is possible. There are a few different forms it is sold in. Dehydrated powder, extract, ube halaya (or paste) or as a grated frozen product. Ube is not an exotic ingredient in the Philippines but a common everyday staple.

This brings us to today’s recipe. Rolled cakes have been around for years but still have such a unique and modern look to them. In North America the terminology evolved from Jelly Cake (1852), Roll Jelly Cake (1860), Swiss Roll (1872), Jelly Roll (1873) and Rolled Jelly Cake (1876).The name ‘Jelly Roll’ was eventually adopted. I recall my mother’s version as a yellow sponge cake with a red jam rolled inside.

In the Philippines a rolled variant has a very simple filling of sugar and butter. Modern versions, however, are commonly frosted and can include a variety of fillings flavored with ube.

My love for ube continues as this is now my fourth blog centered around it. It seems that unique flavor and gorgeous lavender color is finding its way into an endless variety of desserts these days.

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Swiss Roll w/ Ube Halaya
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine Filipino
Servings
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (Jam) Filling
Course dessert
Cuisine Filipino
Servings
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (Jam) Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Ube Halaya (Jam)
  1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add coconut & condensed milks; stir until heated. Add thawed, grated ube & stir everything together. This process takes about 40-50 minutes until the ube is cooked. The mixture will be thick & sticky. It is important to stir the mixture often during cooking process to prevent it from forming a crust. When cooked, transfer the ube halaya to a container. Cover it with plastic wrap, making sure it is touching the ube paste to prevent a skin from forming & set aside. I find, making this filling a day ahead makes everything come together a lot easier.
Roll Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 10x15x1-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper (bottom & sides). Lightly grease the parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks with a hand whisk until lighter in color. Add 1/4 cup sugar & continue to whisk the mixture until it has slightly thickened. Add the milk, oil & vanilla to the bowl. Whisk until incorporated.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour & baking powder. Gradually add this mixture to the yolk mixture & beat with the hand whisk until smooth & lump free.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar & beat until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar gradually while the mixer is running & continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the beaten egg whites (meringue) into the yolk batter in three additions using a rubber spatula until the color of the batter is uniform.
  5. Pour half of the batter into another mixing bowl. Gently fold in some violet food color. Spread the plain batter on the pan, using a rubber spatula to help spread it evenly. Gently pour the colored batter on top of the plain batter. Spread this batter out very gently so the two batters don't get mixed together.
  6. Use a chopstick & start drawing a pattern horizontally first in a continuous motion & then vertically in a continuous motion as well. Gently tap the baking sheet on your work surface once or twice to release air bubbles. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. While the cake bakes, grate the cheese; set aside.
  7. Remove the cake from the oven & lift it out of the pan immediately to a cooling rack & peel off parchment paper from the 4 SIDES. Let it cool for about 5-6 minutes then place a new piece of parchment paper, larger than the cake, on top of the cake & flip over to the other side. Peel off the parchment paper from bottom.
  8. Use a serrated knife to trim about 1/4-inch of the 4 edges. This makes rolling the cake easier. You should roll parallel to the direction of the last hurricane line you drew earlier or the pattern won't show when you cut it. If you trim the side that will be on the bottom at an angle, you cake will sit better when its rolled up. On the side you are going to start rolling, make 4 shallow slices about an inch apart. This helps the cake to roll easier without cracking.
  9. Spread the ube halaya on the surface of the cake. You want to spread most of it near the side you are going to roll up from. There should be less filling towards the other end because as you roll up, the filling will get pushed forward & by the time you roll to the other end, it should be just the right amount of filling.
  10. Very gently use one hand to lift the parchment paper up to help you roll the cake up until you reach the other side. Remove the parchment paper & place the cake on a serving plate. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Loosely tent cake with parchment paper being careful to not have it touching the surface of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Decorate & Serve
  1. When cake is cool & 'set', decorate with additional ube paste & slice. Serve.
Recipe Notes
  • I used about 2 cups of the ube filling for inside the roll. Don't worry if you have extra when your finished decorating, it is so good you will probably enjoy eating any leftovers by the spoonful!

Ube Cruffins

Ube (pronounced OO-bay), is a purple yam native to the Philippines and other areas of Southeast Asia. Ube is a very versatile ingredient. It is not a purple sweet potato or taro, it is a purple yam. Its special taste reminds one of vanilla, pistachios or chestnuts. The vibrant purple color inside and out is uniquely photogenic.

Ube has been used for decades in Filipino cuisine and has now caught on in North America, especially in the form of desserts.

If you’re not familiar with ‘cruffins’, they are a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin. The dough that would be used to make a croissant is rolled up on itself and placed in a popover or muffin pan to be baked. This is how they achieve their characteristic and striking appearance. Next, they are filled with jam, creams, curds, ganaches, etc… You might say it’s about reinventing the croissant.

The first known cruffin was created by Kate Reid in Melbourne, Australia in 2013. A former designer of Formula One racing cars, Kate is no ordinary patisserie. As far back as she remembers, she had a close connection to cars. Her father, being an avid classic car collector, young Kate and her brother would hover around when he was restoring classic Porsche 911’s, sitting in the driver’s seat pretending to go on road trips.

Kate Reid wanted to work at the pinnacle of motor sport. She had the vision that working in the upper echelon of innovation and technology for the automotive industry would give her the opportunity to be incredibly innovative, thinking outside the box and really pushing the boundaries of what was possible.

She tilted her entire education towards earning a degree in aerospace engineering, which eventually led her to a job in Formula One as an aerodynamicist. However, she discovered that it was not what she had imagined it would be like.

From a young age, Kate Reid always loved baking. One day it occurred to her that baking could be more than just a hobby. Fast forward to today, Kate is a pastry chef and the founder and business owner of Lune Croissanterie in the city of Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. Seven years in operation, Lune has become known as the prime location for the perfect croissant. It’s a combination of the passion, inspiration and complexity of the croissant.

She harbors no regrets about her big career change, living by the credo that ‘we get one chance at life, so why not love what you’re going to devote your time and mental capacity to’.

One thing for sure, culinary history never gets boring! So now I’m inspired to make some ‘ube cruffins’ and we just happen to have some special little Filipino friends that can be the official taste testers!!

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Ube Cruffins
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Servings
CRUFFINS
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (Jam) BEST TO MAKE A DAY AHEAD OF USING
Servings
CRUFFINS
Ingredients
Ube Halaya (Jam) BEST TO MAKE A DAY AHEAD OF USING
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Ube Halaya (Jam)
  1. In a medium, heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add coconut & condensed milks; stir until heated. Add thawed, grated ube & combine well.Cook over a low heat. It is important to stir the mixture often during cooking to prevent it from forming a 'crust'. This process takes about 40-50 minutes until the ube is cooked. The mixture should be thick & sticky. Transfer the ube jam to a container & set aside.
Cuffins
  1. In a small dish, heat milk to lukewarm. Add yeast & 1 tsp sugar; let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup sugar, melted butter, sour cream & egg. Add yeast mixture & stir to combine.
  2. In another bowl, whisk flour & salt. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture one cup at a time, combining after each addition. Once all the flour has been added, knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
  3. Lightly grease the large bowl, place dough in it & cover with plastic wrap & a tea towel. Allow to rest for at least one hour, in a draft-free place until dough has doubled in volume.
  4. Lightly grease cups of either a popover or muffin tin. Sprinkle work surface with flour. Roll dough out into a rectangle 21 X 16-inches (about 54 X 40 cm). WITHOUT CUTTING through, mark dough into six equal strips starting on the longest side.
  5. Thinly spread ube jam on strip # 2 & #5 (numbering from the left side). Fold strip #1 & #6 over the jam. Lightly spread the top of each folded side with more jam then fold each one toward center.
  6. Now spread the top of one folded piece, then bring the other side over it. With a rolling pin, slightly press entire layered roll flatter.
  7. With a buttered, sharp knife, cut the strip along its entire length into 3 strips. Next cut each strip horizontally into 4 (or 5) pieces. Carefully lift each piece, stretch it out a bit & then twist it.
  8. Form it into a ring & place in muffin (or popover) cup. When all cruffins are in the pan, use a pastry tube & pipe some ube jam in center of the spiral.
  9. Allow cruffins to sit in a draft-free place for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake cruffins for 20-25 minutes. Grate cheese & set aside.
  10. When cruffins are baked, remove from the oven. While still warm, sprinkle with grated cheese.
Recipe Notes
  • Instead of piping ube jam in center of unbaked cruffins, you can reserve any extra for serving on the side instead.
  • Instead of making a 'true' croissant dough, I used my favorite (sweet) yeast dough. Of course, you don't get the flakiness of a croissant, but the taste & tenderness of the cruffin was still real good.
  • Another alternative would be to use frozen puff pastry.

‘Ube’ Sweet Rolls

I received an email from Pinterest the other day with some interesting recipe ideas. One was to do with Filipino breads. I noticed many centered around a purple yam. A very popular tuber in the Philippines, widely used in desserts and called ube ( pronounced ooo-bae). While purple yam is a relative of the sweet potato, they are not the same tuber. It is also not the same as taro root.

Just like any other tuber, purple yams can be boiled, steamed or baked. Once cooked, they don’t actually taste like much. It’s flavors are enhanced, when combined with sweeteners and liquids such as sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk. Ube adds an earthy, nuttiness to baking and is so visually striking with its vibrant purple color.

Swirl bread or rolls are made of a soft, yeasted, sweet dough filled with purple yam paste. Shredded Edam or queso de bola cheese is often sprinkled on top, giving it a sweet/salty flavor. I decided to try my luck at making some ‘ube rolls’. After scouring the usual grocery stores for purple yams with no luck, Brion and I found an Asian grocery store. They sold grated and frozen ube in 454 gram packages. Perfect! I looked at numerous recipes on the internet, then did my usual. Piece together a few different recipe ideas and ingredients that looked like it would work for me.

It just happens, Brion works with a Filipino lady by the name of Janice. I was hoping to share some of the finished product with her family to see if I had got the taste right. To my surprise, she said it was exactly how it was supposed to taste. Wow! Sometimes you get lucky.


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'Ube' Sweet Rolls

Votes: 21
Rating: 4.05
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Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, Filipino

Servings


Ingredients
Ube (Purple Yam) Filling

Sweet Roll Dough

Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American, Filipino

Servings


Ingredients
Ube (Purple Yam) Filling

Sweet Roll Dough

Votes: 21
Rating: 4.05
You:
Rate this recipe!


Instructions
Ube (Purple Yam) Filling
  1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Add coconut & condensed milks; stir until heated. Add thawed, grated ube & stir everything together. This process takes about 40-50 minutes until the ube is cooked. The mixture will be thick & sticky. It is important to stir the mixture often during cooking to prevent it from forming a crust. Transfer the ube paste/jam to a container & set aside.

Cheese
  1. Grate cheese & set aside in refrigerator until needed.

Sweet Roll Dough
  1. In a small dish, heat milk to lukewarm. Add yeast & 1 tsp sugar; let sit for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1/4 cup sugar, melted butter, sour cream & egg. Add yeast mixture & stir to combine.

  2. In another bowl, whisk flour & salt. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture 1 cup at a time, combining after each addition. Once all flour has been added, knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.

  3. Lightly grease the large bowl, place dough in it & cover with plastic wrap & a tea towel. Allow to rest for at least one hour, in a draft free place until dough has doubled in volume.

  4. Punch dough down. Divide into 18 equal pieces. Roll each piece with a rolling pin. Spread the middle of each piece with ube filling & SOME of the grated cheese. Close up the piece over the filling like an envelope, pinch long edges together, & roll it with your fingers into a rod shape. Coil each rod into a rounded snail shape. Place in greased baking dish & cover with plastic wrap/towel. Allow to rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

  5. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake rolls about 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven; cool for just a few minutes then pat with butter. Sprinkle with sugar & more grated cheese.