The Happy Home Cook: Lola Soling’s Mango Ice Candy

The Happy Home Cook features cherished recipes of Filipino dishes from well-known foodies and contributors. If you have a recipe that you are proud of and would like to share, please send it along with a photo of the dish, your two-sentence bio and your picture to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com.

Mango Ice Candy (Photo courtesy of Lynnor Bontigao)

“Sari-Sari Summers” is a picture book about a girl named Nora who spends her summer vacations helping tend her Lola Soling’s sari-sari store (convenience store). When a heatwave hits, they come up with a brilliant plan to sell Mango Ice Candy. Neighbors come to the store to buy these homemade ice pops, a cool and refreshing relief from the weather.

Ice candy is a Filipino snack that children can make with the help of an adult. A variety of fruits can be used, depending on what’s in season. For this story, I wanted to feature the mango, one of my favorite fruits and something the Philippines is known for. Almost all the dried mangoes you find at stores in other countries come from the Philippines. We use it in so many ways: juice, cake, preserves, pastries, or just eat them straight up. The mango, like the sari-sari store, is also very much a part of our Filipino lives.

Ice candy bags are available in markets or supermarkets in the Philippines. They can also be purchased online, look for disposable ice popsicle mold bags.

Lola Soling’s Mango Ice Candy

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe mangoes (you can substitute other fruits like avocado, coconut, or melon)
1 can condensed milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 can table cream (or heavy cream)

Tools and equipment: 

Ice candy bags
Blender
Funnel

Procedure:

1.  Scoop out the mango flesh into the blender. Discard the skin and seed.

2.  Add the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth.

3.  Using a funnel, pour the mixture into ice candy bags. Do not fill until the very top, leaving instead an empty gap (about 2 ½ inches) to allow you to make a knot. Tightly knot the end of the ice candy bag.

4.  Place the ice candy in the freezer until solid.

5.  To eat the ice candy: Peel off the plastic from one end and eat it like a popsicle.

To read more about Lynnor Bontigao, visit: http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/summers-at-the-sari-sari-store