Maja Blanca is a firm, sliceable coconut pudding set with cornstarch, pale and smooth with sweet corn kernels suspended through it. It is poured into a tray, chilled until it holds its shape, then cut into squares and finished with a scatter of latik, the toasted coconut curds. Often called coconut pudding, it is a holiday and fiesta staple, especially around Christmas. The texture is its signature — set enough to slice cleanly, yet still soft and yielding.
Maja Blanca is the Filipino take on the Spanish manjar blanco, the colonial-era cousin of European blancmange, whose name means white delicacy. The local version diverged sharply by building the pudding on coconut milk instead of dairy or almond milk, setting it with cornstarch in place of the original thickeners. Sweet corn is a common modern addition rather than part of the older recipe. It became most popular in Luzon — Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, and Ilocano kitchens — and remains a fixture of festive tables.
Cool, soft, and just firm enough to hold a clean edge, it gives way smoothly on the spoon — somewhere between a custard and a set jelly. The flavor is gently sweet and richly coconut, the corn kernels adding small bursts of texture and their own mild sweetness. The latik on top is the foil: toasted, nutty, slightly savory granules against the pale, milky set. Served chilled, it is light and refreshing rather than heavy.
Cornstarch is the setting agent: its starch granules absorb liquid and gelatinize as the coconut-milk mixture is heated and stirred, thickening it into a gel that firms further as it cools. Constant stirring over low heat is essential to keep the starch from clumping and the bottom from scorching. The coconut milk supplies both flavor and the fat for a creamy mouthfeel, while the latik topping comes from reducing coconut cream until the milk solids separate from the oil and brown.
Variations
The cleanest split is corn or no corn — maja blanca with kernels is the popular modern form, while the plainer maja blanca is just coconut. Some cooks enrich it with evaporated and condensed milk for a creamier, less purely-coconut result; others fold in young coconut strips (buko) or cheese. A version with toasted ground rice or extra latik leans into nutty depth, and food-colored layers occasionally turn it into a party piece.
On the Palate
Where Maja Blanca sits in the Filipino flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 13 min
Dissolve the cornstarch in part of the coconut milk and set aside.
- 25 min
Heat the remaining coconut milk with sugar in a wide pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- 33 min
Stir in the corn kernels and let them warm through.
- 43 min
Pour in the cornstarch slurry slowly, stirring constantly.
- 512 min
Keep cooking and stirring over low heat until the mixture turns thick and pulls from the pan.
Watch outKeep stirring over low heat until the mixture turns thick and pulls from the pan — constant stirring stops the cornstarch clumping and the bottom scorching.
- 63 min
Pour into a greased tray and smooth the surface level.
- 7120 min
Chill until fully set and firm enough to slice.
Watch outChill until fully set and firm enough to slice — the starch keeps firming as it cools, so give it time before cutting or it slumps.
- 85 min
Cut into squares and top each with latik before serving.
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