It is traditionally made with sun-dried leftover cooked white rice that is fried and coated with syrup.

[1] In Cebuano slang, ampáw is also a euphemism roughly equivalent to the English idiom "[a person] full of hot air".The term is derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *ampaw (“empty husk (of rice, etc.)”).

[2] Another Filipino word, ampaw (also spelled as angpao or ampao, from Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 紅包; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: âng-pau; lit.

The glazing is poured unto the puffed rice and mixed until the grains are evenly coated.

Examples include roasted peanuts, pinipig (toasted young rice), and chocolate.