Christmas isn’t always about gift-giving. If there’s one thing that makes people excited, that would be the dishes we often associate with the season. There are the bibingka and puto bumbong sold right outside the church after the Misa de Gallo. At home, your mother probably stayed up late just to separate the egg yolks from the whites for her special leche flan. Then, there’s your grandmother who would ask you to help in mixing that kawa of ube halaya.
Those are just some of the images we see or conjure every Christmastime. Although we never get tired of those dishes served the same way every year, you might want to try something different this year. Here are some desserts you can serve without the hassle this Christmas.
Bibingka ice pops
Goto Monster. 245 Primo de Rivera cor. P. Ocampo Ext., La Paz Makati City. 0916-3002600
Usually cooked with charcoal, we’re used to eating this Christmas specialty warm with coconut on top. If your grandmother sees you eat this fresh from the fridge, she’ll probably raise her brows at you. Surprisingly, bibingka can also be enjoyed as a cold treat.
At Goto Monster, bibingka is sold in the form of their irresistible ice pops. It sounds weird, but it gives justice to your after-misa snack. Their bibingka ice pop has that buttery coconut taste with some hint of salted egg.
Puto bumbong cake
Lia’s Cakes in Season. 25 A & B E Capitol Drive, Pasig City. 0917-6605427
Puto bumbong is another warm treat we usually devour after the mass. The purple delicacy is made with glutinous rice topped with grated coconut, butter or margarine, and sugar. If you’re not a fan of puto bumbong, there’s another way to eat it. Liah’s Cakes in Season presents it in the form of a bundt cake still topped with grated coconut and muscovado sugar just to add that right sweetness. It tastes just like puto bumbong minus the stickiness of the glutinous rice.
Matcha flan
The Lost Bread. Unit B 80 Maginahawa St., Diliman, Quezon City. 855-5115
My mom’s leche flan is my favorite Christmas dessert. It’s the usual leche flan with loads of milk and I’d probably never get tired of it. But since we’ve been seeing matcha-flavored everything for so long, maybe matcha-flavored leche flan deserves a chance on your Christmas table. At Lost Bread, the classic leche flan meets the famous matcha. It still has that tender texture of the usual leche flan, but it’s easy to distinguish the matcha’s flavor. And the matcha actually works to balance the sweetness of the leche flan.
Header image courtesy of Lia’s Cakes in Season’s Facebook page
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