Camote halaya

Sweet potato cooked down much further than a yam halaya needs, then dried out in the oven.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter), dairy (condensed milk).

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg orange sweet potatoes
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 300 g condensed milk
• 150 g caster sugar
• 100 g butter
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. COOKED DOWN FURTHER THAN A YAM HALAYA, AND THEN BAKED. Sweet potato holds far more water than purple yam and far less starch, so the ube macapuno method on this site stops too early here and leaves something that slumps in the dish. This needs an extra ten minutes in the pan and then twenty in the oven to drive the rest out.
2. ROAST THE SWEET POTATOES, do not boil them. Whole, in their skins, 180C for 50 to 60 minutes until completely soft. Boiled, they take up still more water and the pan stage becomes impossible.
3. Roasting also concentrates the sugar, which is why this needs less added sugar than it looks like it should.
4. Scoop the flesh out hot and press it through a sieve. Mashed only, it stays fibrous.
5. Purée, coconut milk, condensed milk, sugar, butter and salt into a wide heavy pan. Low heat, stirring constantly, 40 to 45 minutes.
6. It will look done at twenty-five minutes and it is not. Keep going until the spoon stands up unsupported in the middle of the pan and the mixture tears rather than flows when you drag through it.
7. Cinnamon in at the end.
8. Spread it in a buttered dish 3 cm deep and BAKE at 170C for 20 minutes, until the surface is matt and slightly darker and a skin has formed.
9. Cool completely, then chill 3 hours before cutting. It slices cleanly; warm, it is a spread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes