Ube (purple yam) ice cream

A Filipino classic: purple yam, coconut milk and condensed milk. Gently vanilla-and-nutty, and naturally purple.

Ube is a purple variety of yam (Dioscorea alata) and, in the Philippines, the base of ube halaya — a sweet paste cooked from mashed yam, condensed milk and coconut milk. Ice cream made from it is everyday fare there, and in 2026 flavour round-ups ube is among the flavours pushing onto Western menus; Slovak sources mention it alongside matcha. The taste is not fruity: it is mild and milky, a little vanilla-like and a little nutty and earthy — and above all nothing like what the colour leads you to expect.

Type: Classic cream ice cream · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 220 g ube (purple yam, boiled and mashed) (boiled and mashed purple yam (frozen grated ube works too))
  • 330 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 300 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 170 g sweetened condensed milk
  • 15 g skimmed milk powder
  • 40 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 35 g dextrose (glucose powder)

Making the mix

  1. If you have the whole yam: peel it, cut it into cubes and boil for 20–25 minutes until soft, then drain and mash it. Frozen grated ube only needs thawing.
  2. Heat the milk, cream, milk powder and condensed milk in a pan to 60 °C. Add the granulated sugar and dextrose and stir until dissolved.
  3. Add the mashed ube and heat the mix to 80 °C, stirring now and then. Hold it there for 2 minutes — the starch from the yam gelatinises and the mix thickens.
  4. Blend the mix smooth with a stick blender so no fibres are left in it.
  5. Cool the mix quickly in a bowl set in iced water.
  6. Cover and age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix no higher than the fill line (with a smaller bowl, churn in two batches) and churn for 25–35 minutes, until it has the consistency of thick whipped cream.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Total time: 8 h 40 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix — no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the ice cream thickens. There’s no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours beforehand (until you can no longer hear the coolant sloshing inside). The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 9 h 35 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Divide the chilled mix between CREAMi tubs, filling each no higher than the MAX line (a full batch makes about two standard tubs).
  2. Put the lids on and freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
  3. Place a tub in the machine and run the Ice Cream program.
  4. If the ice cream is crumbly or powdery, run Re-spin (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk first).

Programme: Ice Cream

A standard tub holds about 470 ml, a Deluxe tub about 700 ml. Don’t fill above the MAX line, and freeze it level — the machine doesn’t handle an uneven block well.

Total time: 30 h 15 min

Stages

Preparation
20 min
Cooking
20 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
5 h
Churning
30 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
8 h 40 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 8 h 40 min, of which 40 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The day before (6 h 10 min)

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 20 min
  • Cook the mix — 20 min
  • Cool the mix down — 30 min
  • Let the mix age in the fridge — 5 h

On the day of serving (2 h 30 min)

  • Churn in the machine — 30 min
  • Let it harden in the freezer — 2 h

Serving and storage

In the Philippines it is served in a bread roll or with coconut flakes. Take it out of the freezer (−18 °C) and let it stand for 5–10 minutes until it scoops easily. It tastes best at −12 to −14 °C.

In a sealed container with cling film pressed onto the surface it’s best within a week; after that, ice crystals start to build up. Never refreeze ice cream that has melted.

Tips

  • Frozen grated ube is sold in Asian food shops; you can also buy ready-made ube halaya paste, but that already contains sugar and milk — in that case cut back on the condensed milk and sugar.
  • The colour depends on the variety and on how the yam was cooked. The deep purple of shop-bought ice cream comes from colouring — the home-made version is usually paler, towards lilac.
  • Purple sweet potato is not the same thing as ube, but it works as a substitute; the flavour is sweeter and less milky.

Why it works

A fifth of yam is starch, and at 80 °C it gelatinises and binds water. That is why this recipe needs neither a stabiliser nor egg yolks: 220 g of ube raises total solids by about 6 percentage points and the mix is thick once chilled. Total fat works out at around 11 %, at the bottom of the cream ice cream range. Anti-freezing power (PAC) tells you how much water stays unfrozen at a given temperature — the higher it is, the softer the ice cream. Dextrose has almost twice the anti-freezing power of granulated sugar but is less sweet, which is why the two sugars are combined.

Related recipes

How we calculate the composition · What PAC and POD mean · Balance this mix in the calculator

Sources