Ube Ice Cream and Shake

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A refreshing beautiful purple ice cream/shake.

The ube plant has been made popular in Hawaii due to its key signature purple color. It’s been mostly found in the Philippines and has since been introduced to be part of Hawaii’s food culture.

It’s very similar to the Okinawan Sweet Potato with its flesh color also being purple and sweet. If you’d like to try out another purple dessert, check out my other recipe Sweet Okinawan Potato Pie. Though they may be similar they are actually different plants. Okinawan Sweet Potato is, like its name says, a sweet potato while ube is actually a yam. Ube has an exterior that looks like a dark brown that looks like a tree bark. The inside of has more white and speckles of lilac like color.

Ube Flavor

Getting that vibrant purple color and unique taste of the ube can be achieved through ube extract/flavoring. You most definitely can get it from the actual fresh plant, but the texture will be different. I’ve tried making it with the actual plant but when I made it with the ice cream, it didn’t have the same texture or taste as normal ice cream. So, I came to the conclusion that ube extract is the best fit for this recipe. If you don’t have access to ube extract/flavor through your local grocery or simply would rather have it delivered, I was able to find it through amazon here.

Ice Cream

Do you remember when you were a kid doing the activity of making ice cream at home? I do! It was a fun activity to do at my church’s youth group. We had two ziploc bags. One had the ice and salt mixture, to help lower the temperature. The second bag had the actual ingredients for the ice cream which was heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. You put the second bag into the ice mixture bag. Then you shake it ’til you make it!

This process is a great activity for kids to do on a family night, but if we wanted to take it up a notch, I really recommend doing this recipe. It brings out a lot more depth to the ice cream. Compared to the fast ziploc bag method, this ice cream is a lot more lighter and tastier! Plus if you aren’t feeling the ube flavoring that night, try it with different flavors like vanilla or chocolate. Then maybe sprinkle in some crushed Oreos or sprinkles.

You can of course hand mix the cream, but you must be Hercules to do that. A simpler way to mix it is to use a hand mixer. I just recently got this wireless hand mixer and I am in love with it! I’m not tethered to a wire and outlet and the battery life lasts 20 minutes of continuous runtime!

Shake, Shake, Shake!

Alright, my guilty confession is that I looooove me some creamy good shake! If I am on a diet, this will definitely set my health goals a couple years back. Anyways…if you aren’t satisfied with just the ice cream, you can turn this into a lovely ube shake. Simply pop a couple scoops of the ube ice cream into a well powered blender, like this Vitamix that I’ve had for 8 years, and drizzle in about a half cup of milk. Either add in more milk or less depending on your preference to how thick you’d like your shake to be.