While there are some sweet snacks, most aren’t overly sweet. People in the Philippines usually prefer savory or fruity snacks. You’ll find plenty of bread-based snacks, plenty of bananas, and several recipes that require coconut, syrup, or rice. There may be several Filipino snacks on this list that you can’t pronounce, but don’t let that stop you from giving them a try. You’ll be incredibly impressed by the results. If you aren’t sure where to start, here are 20 of my favorites for you to check out.
1. Pandesal
Making these delicious, pillowy rolls takes a little over 2 hours (including rising/resting time), but they’re worth every second you spend on them. Whether you serve them with butter and honey as a sweet breakfast option or with cheese and lunch meats as a midday snack, no one will want to stop at just one.
2. Buchi
Whether you call them buchi, jian dui, or sesame balls, these lovely, golden-brown balls of yumminess can be sweet or savory, depending on the filling you choose. Their outsides are super crispy, thanks in large part to their generous coating of seeds, but the insides are soft, chewy, and flavorful. They’re also charming and perfect for parties or potlucks.
3. Suman Malagkit with Coconut Caramel Sauce
This traditional Filipino snack takes a bit of time to make, but it requires fewer than 10 ingredients and isn’t challenging. The inner rice cake is sticky and sweet, and the sauce is creamy, smooth, and incredibly rich. Wrapped up in the banana leaves, they make a unique, beautiful treat.
4. Biko
To make this four-ingredient sweet snack, all you’ll need is glutinous rice, water, coconut milk, and pandan leaves. It’s a sweet, dense cake with an interesting texture and a delightful taste. You can serve it dry, but it doesn’t taste nearly as good without the latik syrup. For that, you’ll need coconut milk, dark brown sugar, vanilla, and something to grease your pan. It adds a whole other level of sweetness and decadence to the cake.
5. Pork Chicharon
Pork rinds may have originated in Mexico, and Americans may have made them more popular, but Filipino chefs know how to make them just right. They’re deep-fried pork rinds, seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and garlic and fried to gorgeous golden and exceptionally crispy perfection. Best of all, they’re seriously low-carb and can take the place of chips, crackers, and other salty, crunchy snacks.
6. Puto
Puto looks a bit like a white corn muffin, but it’s undeniably lighter and fluffier. Biting into one of these scrumptious snacks is like biting into a cloud – a very tasty, very cheesy cloud.
7. Turon
Also known as deep-fried banana rolls, turon is a sweet, glazed snack that’s hard not to love. With plantains, jackfruit, sugar, oil, and lumpia wrappers, you can make half a dozen in less than 30 minutes. Serve them for dessert, breakfast, or any other time you like. You won’t regret it.
8. Banana Cue
All you’ll need to make this phenomenal snack are saba bananas, brown sugar, and some oil in which to fry them. You’ll also want skewers to hold them in place. Traditionally served as dessert, banana cues aren’t as sweet as some of the more common American desserts, but they’re sweet enough, thanks to the brown sugar. They’re also relatively healthy, particularly for a dessert.
9. Taho
This sweet, warm drink is a classic Filipino treat. People often serve it for breakfast, but others have been known to enjoy it throughout the day. The brown sugar simple syrup gives it a hint of sweetness, and while the tapioca pearls don’t add much in the way of flavor, they make it look nice and add a bit of smooth, silky texture.
10. Filipino Coconut Rice Pudding with Corn
Rice pudding and corn may not sound like they go well together, but as my dad would say, “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.” It’s smooth and thick, and the corn kernels add a bit of bright, golden-yellow color, texture, and sweetness. Despite its oddness, it’s so tasty that even the kiddos will love it.
11. Ensaymada
These may look a bit like coconut macaroons, but their taste couldn’t be more different. Instead, they’re a form of Filipino brioche topped with sugar and shredded cheese. Again, that may not sound like a winning combination, but trust me when I tell you it’s delicious.
12. Banana Fritters
Banana fritters are pure banana goodness, shaped and fried, and ready in 25 minutes. If you love bananas, you’ll go crazy for these fritters. Best of all, you probably have everything you need to make them in your kitchen already – bananas, flour, vanilla extract, an egg, baking powder, sugar, milk, oil, and salt. That’s all it takes. Despite the bananas and sugar, these are more savory than sweet, but they do have a nice bit of sweetness to them, especially if you top them in powdered sugar and just a drop of honey.
13. Halo-Halo
Halo-halo is tasty; there’s no doubt about that. However, that’s not why I love it. I love it because of how beautiful and colorful it is. It requires a ton of ingredients, but there’s no actual cooking involved, so you can make it in practically no time. It’s a version of shaved ice, but it’s much thicker, richer, and sweeter thanks to the ice cream, milk, and all the fruit. You can use whatever ingredients you like, but the recipe calls for bananas, coconut, sweet corn, evaporated milk, gelatin, mangoes, jackfruit, cooked yams, ice cream, rice pop, and shaved ice. As a result, there are reds, whites, yellows, oranges, purples, and more. It’s one of the most colorful desserts you’ll ever see.
14. Bibingkang Malagkit
This chewy, uniquely textured treat takes a little over an hour to make but requires only six ingredients. In addition to the glutinous rice, coconut milk, and coconut cream, you’ll need brown sugar, salt, and some banana leaves. The dessert is dense in texture but light in taste, and it has a distinctly tropical flavor.
15. Banana Chips
Whether you bake them, fry them, or stick them in a dehydrator, banana chips are a salty, savory, tasty treat. If you add the simple syrup, they’ll take on a slightly sweet taste. However, these crispy snacks aren’t as sweet as the dried banana chips you can buy in bags at the store.
16. Pastillas de Leche
These candies are sweet, zesty (thanks to the lime), and require only five ingredients to make. They take a bit of time to get right, but they’re worth the effort.
17. Marie Biscuits
These eggless cookies are thin, flaky, crispy, and delectable. All you’ll need is butter, milk, flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda, and you can make more than a dozen of these crunchy biscuits in about 20 minutes. They’re not overly sweet, and they’ll taste fantastic with a cup of coffee or hot tea.
18. Ube Pastillas
These yummy, chewy candies are insanely easy to make, and all you’ll need for them is sweetened condensed milk, refined sugar, and two cups of grated or boiled ube. (Ubes are gorgeous purple yams.) Their name literally translates to “milk tablets,” which may not sound super appetizing, but these colorfully wrapped confections are pretty good to be so simply made.
19. Buko Pandan
This cool, refreshing dessert is a little hard to describe, so my suggestion is to just try it for yourself. It’s sweet and has a consistency that’s half ice cream/half Jello. It’s fruity and flowery, and the pretty green tapioca pearls add an interesting texture that most people really enjoy.
20. Lumpia
Lumpia requires several ingredients and quite a bit of time to make correctly, but you cannot pass these up if you love spring rolls. They have the thin, crispy, flaky crust that makes spring rolls so fantastic, and the filling includes pork, shrimp, onions, carrots, celery, and more. Don’t forget to make the homemade dipping sauce, either. It takes the spring rolls from “That’s good!” to “Oh my gosh, I can’t get enough of these!” Click on a star to rate it!
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