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Halo-Halo Ice Pops Recipe

This frozen ice pop recipe has many of the familiar flavors of a halo-halo dessert, including ube, coconut milk, jackfruit, bananas, and mango.

By chow · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and mango match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 221 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

About 6 (4-ounce) pops
Cook8 hr 45 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Combine the frozen grated ube, whole milk and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring often, until the ube is very soft.

  2. Transfer the ube mixture to a blender with the heavy cream, coconut milk and vanilla extract. Blend until completely smooth.

  3. Pour the base into a bowl and chill for 45 minutes until cold.

  4. Dice the mango and banana small, chop the jackfruit, and cut the coconut gelatin into small cubes. Drain the mung beans or corn if using. Use 3/4 cup total of any combination of these.

  5. Toss the mix-ins with the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and let sit 15 minutes so the sugar softens the fruit.

  6. Stir the mix-ins into the chilled base, then spoon the mixture into ice pop molds, filling each about three-quarters full.

  7. Insert the sticks and freeze for 8 hours or overnight until firm.

  8. To release, run the outside of each mold under warm water for 10 seconds and gently pull the pops out.

By chow. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Coconut + mangotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together221 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + coconuttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vanilla + mangotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together160 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the yam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, coconut, mango):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Yamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, coconut, mango. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).