That Sweet Tooth

Who wouldn't love dessert and sweets at the end of a meal? Maybe a few of us are not fond of eating sweets, like my husband, but I am certain that for most of us desserts are one of the exciting part of a meal because look forward to it. Am I right?

Today I am going to take you to a trip to my country and I will introduce to you the sweet side of our race. Yes! It is time for, Top Ten Filipino Desserts and Sweet.

• SUMAN

Suman is made up of glutinous rice and often comes in many varieties. One of my favourites are the ones that's made up of ground cassava flour with tons of shredded young coconut in it. But the common kind of suman that you will see in celebrations are the ones that is made out of glutinous rice, coconut milk,ginger, salt and sugar. As far as I have known the procedure is, you cook the rice as usual but you will add the salt, sugar,ginger and coconut milk when you cook it. When it is cooked you then get green banana leaves and wrapped the cooked rice. Put it in a pot ad some water and boil it until the inside os fully cooked. Its seems like its double cooked but trust me its more delicious because you have wrapped it in green banana leaves, green coconut leaves or palm leaves The aroma of coconut milk,ginger and banana leaves will surely have you wanting for more of this native Filipino delicacy served as dessert or snacks on some occasions.

• BIKO

Biko is also made out of glutinous rice but unlike suman, it is not wrapped in a leaf but rather it is just laid in a container and topped with fresh coconut jams. It is less complicated to prepare unlike suman because you just have to cook the glutinous rice alone just as how you would normal rice grains. So you wash the glutinous rice add enough water, depending on the amount of water because some rice rise more than the others. When the rice is cooked you set it aside. In a pan you add the coconut milk and muscovado sugar and stir it until it becomes a jam. When the jam is made you add the cooked rice but you must make sure you set aside a portion of the jam to be put on top of your finished product. Some would love to add some coconut crispies too.

• PUTO CHEESE

Puto Cheese is like a cute little muffin that has a cheese on top. It is made out of cake flour,eggs, salt, sugar and milk. Some would want to add yeast so it would rise. You wix all the ingredients and when the batter is ready you out in a mold and you steam it. Yes no need to bake it, you just have to steam it and you will have yummy snacks for everybody. This one is so convenient cause it has a wrapper underneath and you can hold it with your hands while chatting with a friend.

• GULAMAN

Gulaman I think is the most convenient dessert to make. My brother-in-law used to make this when there are family gatherings. But now that he has gone on a voluntary service for two years, I miss his specialty. Glad that he will be returning home this year, which means that he will be making some of these when there are family gatherings again. Hopefully he will. Hehehe. Well, this one is super easy to make. You just buy some seaweed powder in the grocery stores. You cook them and let it cool. When it is cool enough to be cut, you cut them into cubes. I like buying the buko flavored ones. When its cut, you mix it with evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream and voila, you now have a yummy dessert. Its a very affordable and easy to make, you might wanna try it at home.and oh, by the way, it is best served when chilled.

• MANGO TAPIOCA

As obvious as its name, Mango Tapioca is made out of mango and tapioca pearls. Tapioca are made out of cassava flour rolled into tiny balls of many sizes. This one's easy to make too. You just shred the ripe mangoes add the cooked tapioca, condensed milk and cream. You put it in the chiller and it's ready to be served after a few minutes. This dessert has been a common business by entrepreneurs in our place lately. Some would bottle it and some would put it in tiny tubs. It's a hit actually because its yummy and very refreshing.

• MAJA BLANCA

Maja Blanca is one of my personal favourites. I love it especially when it is a little bit frozen. Maja Blanca is a bit complicated to make because if you overcooked it its gonna be awful and if you undercook it its gonna be yucky in texture and taste. You need to cook it just right in order to get the right consistency and the right taste of course. I remember once,my classmate in college cooked it and she failed to put in the right amount of water, it tasted weird. Cornstarch is the main ingredient of Maja Blanca. You add water, evaporated milk, cooked sago, sugar and peanuts. Some would add corn too. I love it when there is corn in it. So you mix everything in a container and when cornstarch is well dissolved already including the sugar , you put it in a pan and and heat it in low fire. You stir it until a good consistency is achieved and then you put it in a container and sprinkle it with ground peanuts. Yummm! Its even more delicious when it is a bit frozen (well at least for me) some like it when its chilled. Either way it is good.

• MANGO FLOAT

Since the Philippines is a tropical country, we grow so much tropical fruits such as pineapples, bananas, coconuts and of course mangoes. Because of its abundance there's a lot of desserts that we Filipinos can make out of this golden fruit. I have already mentioned one which the Mango Tapioca dessert and this time I have another dessert which has mango as its main ingredient. Some people actually calls this dessert mango ref cake because it can taste like a creamy mango cake. But it is named, Mango Float Plus, its steps is as easy as 123. You just gotta need mango, cream and graham crackers. By the way,make sure that your mango is really ripe and sweet. So first, you shred a mango for toppings and you set it aside. Then you blend cream and mango and set it aside. Then you put a graham crackers in a container as a base, you add the blended mango and cream then you lay another set of Graham crackers on top of it an repeat putting mango and cream and crackers alternately. When you almost done, you out the shredded mango on top and sprinkle some crushed Graham's crackers, chill it overnight and thats it!

• LECHE FLAN

It gets so exciting as we go down to my favourites! I am sure you guys are familiar with flans. I am not sure if this one is originally from the Philippines or maybe its borrowed from other cultures. But either which it is super delicious! Leche flans are made out of egg yolks, milk and a little salt. You mix them all up and set them aside. You bring an aluminium mold with a spoonful of sugar in it and you melt that sugar to make caramelized syrup after that you add the batter that you made earlier, cover it with aluminium foil and then steam it for 25 minutes, you take it off from and i let it cool and then serve it! I can imagine that sweet yummy dessert eaten on a sunny day. Oh my I am drooling!

• FRUIT SALAD

When you hear the word fruit salad you might think of the many fruits being mixed together. But this one isn't that kind of dessert, instead it is made with cream and canned fruits most of the time. The Filipino style Fruit Salad is a little different. So what you do is you buy a fruit cocktail (canned fruits) open it up and drain the juice. You then put them together with cream and condensed milk you out cheese on top and that's it! Yummy, creamy and fruity the Filipino style! Perfect for your sweet tooth cravings.

• BUKO SALAD

This is my most favorite dessert of all! Coconut, especially the young ones, has always been one of my favourite tropical fruit. We call the young coconut as "buko". Buko Salad is as simple as the fruit salad that I have aforementioned. You just shred the young coconut's meat, add it in a bowl with a little can of fruit cocktail. You mix it with cream and a little condensed milk and your buko salad is good. Of course always best when you serve it frozen or chilled. Some add some twist to it by adding a little coconut water to it. But even without the young coconut water, it will still be good because of the young coconut meat (buko) in it!

There you have it friends! A series of ten desserts according to my taste. I am sure some of you likes different desserts other than this. This article is actually an entry to the writing prompt that @JonicaBradley made entitled Sweet and Savory. You can check out her article through this link.

Thank you for reading my article friend. Which among my top desserts are your favourite too?

Come join the fun and write about something sweet and savory. It will surely be fun!