Piaya

Piaya is a flat sweet associated with Negros Island in the Philippines, particularly Bacolod and the province of Negros Occidental. A wheat-flour dough is wrapped around a brown sugar called muscovado, rolled out thin and cooked on a griddle or similar surface. Unlike bread, which is made to rise thick, it is characterized by a layer of sweet sugar inside a thin dough.

Some are coated with sesame seeds before cooking, so the toasty exterior and the sugar-filled interior differ in texture. Even large piaya are cooked thin. The handwork of wrapping the sugar so that it reaches all the way to the edges of the round dough, then rolling it out, creates this shape and flavor.

Unleavened and cooked thin

Piaya is described as a type of flatbread that is not leavened by fermentation. The dough is divided into small portions, wrapped around the sugar and sealed, then rolled out thin once more. Rather than sandwiching a filling between two flat pieces of dough, the dough that encloses the filling is pressed and rolled out thin.

In the recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) by cook Yasmin Newman, cold butter is worked into the flour and water is added to make a dough. A small amount of glucose syrup is combined with the muscovado for the filling, which is broken up so that hard lumps will not tear the skin. The dough is wrapped so that no hole remains at the seam and is rolled out gently so that it does not tear. This prevents the sugar from leaking out during cooking.

Newman rolls the sugar-filled dough out to about 2 mm and cooks it on both sides. Cooking both sides browns the surface of the thin dough and also heats the sugar inside. Besides this formula, which uses butter as the fat, each maker has a different dough, and the bite of the skin also changes with the amount of filling and the thickness to which it is rolled.

Schematic diagram of the process based on Newman’s recipe, showing the sequence of wrapping the sugar, rolling the dough flat and cooking both sides. Source. Diagram: Sweetlore.

Negros, a sugar-producing region, and the custom of bringing home gifts

Fields and a sugar mill in La Carlota, Negros Occidental. Photographed October 20, 2023. The production landscape of a cane sugar-producing region.

Photo: Patrickroque01 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Original. Reduced display-size image from the source, no additional processing.

Muscovado is a cane sugar that retains the flavor and color of molasses. Negros is a region deeply connected with sugar production, and in piaya the sugar itself is the heart of the filling. When the skin is broken open, the aroma of cane sugar rises from the sweet layer.

Piaya also spread as a pasalubong sweet, brought home from travels for family and acquaintances. Regarding Kalibo Food Haus, which makes piaya in Kalibo on Panay Island, a 2018 project report by the Department of Science and Technology records its efforts to improve packaging materials and labels. Packaging that holds each cooked piece in a box or bag so that it can be delivered far away also supports piaya’s spread as a souvenir sweet.

There are also places that pass on the handmade craft. At “marit’s Special Piaya” near Bacolod, visited in 2025 by participants from a language school, visitors could try wrapping sugar in dough, rolling it thin and cooking it on a griddle. The owner says that, with factory-made products increasing and many children not knowing how piaya is made, the hope is to pass the handmade method and its flavor on to the next generation.

As with the maker in Kalibo, piaya is also made in other parts of the country beyond Negros Island. Cooks who have moved abroad also continue to make it as the taste of Bacolod. The pasalubong custom of bringing home a region’s sweets from travels and giving them to family and acquaintances carries that taste far afield.

Ube-filled piaya and thin-cooked piayito

Besides the traditional muscovado filling, there is also piaya made with ube, a purple yam. A filling based mainly on sugar and a filling made with ube paste differ in their consistency. Using ube adds the flavor of the yam and the texture of the paste.

Small piayito, meanwhile, are treated as a thin, crisp sweet. They are not simply a scaled-down version of a large piaya; they are enjoyed for their thinness and the crisp bite of the finished product. Whether boxed as a souvenir or eaten freshly cooked at the shop, piaya is made by wrapping the filling and then rolling it flat. Differences in size, filling and packaging also affect the impression it makes when eaten.

Glossary