Cocada
Cocada is a sweet known from the street stalls of Bahia and popular all over Latin America. It is grated coconut cooked in sugar syrup with condensed milk until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the pan, then cooled and cut into squares. The pieces are moist and chewy inside, with slightly caramelised edges. They take a few ingredients and half an hour — then you just wait for them to set.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Syrup 10 min
- Cooking with coconut 15 min
- Spreading 10 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the coconut
Pour the milk over the coconut and leave it while you make the syrup — it absorbs the milk and resembles freshly grated coconut.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Make the syrup
In a heavy pan bring the sugar and water to the boil and boil 5–7 minutes without stirring, until slightly thickened and at about 110°C. Without a thermometer, do the thread test: cool a drop of syrup on a spoon — stretched between your fingers it should form a thread. Hot syrup burns badly, so never touch it straight from the pan.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Syrup to the thread stage — about 110°C.Add the coconut
Lower the heat and add the coconut with the milk. Take care — the syrup bubbles up violently.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Cook, stirring
Cook over low heat 12–15 minutes, stirring all the time, until thick.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Add the condensed milk
Stir in the condensed milk and cook another 2–3 minutes, until glossy and pulling away from the base and sides of the pan.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Pulling away from the pan — ready to spread.Spread in a tray
Butter a tray or dish of about 20 × 20 cm. Tip in the hot mixture and smooth it with a wet spoon to about 1.5 cm thick.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Cool
Leave the cocada to cool for at least an hour, until set.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
Cut
Cut into 20 pieces of about 4 × 5 cm with a buttered knife. Serve with coffee.
Ingredients: 250 g sugar · 120 ml water · 200 g desiccated coconut · 150 ml milk · 100 g sweetened condensed milk · 10 g butter for greasing
A buttered knife — the coconut will not stick.
Before you start
Fresh coconut
The best cocada is made with freshly grated coconut flesh (about 300 g) — then skip the soaking milk.
Cocada queimada
Caramelise the sugar to deep gold before adding the water and you get cocada queimada — dark, with a burnt caramel flavour. Pour the water in hot, carefully and at arm's length: the caramel spits and steams violently.
Storage
Cocada keeps 5 days in an airtight container somewhere cool, and up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
