Cocadas

Cooked until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a dry trail that does not close, or they will not hold their shape.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (condensed milk).

Ingredients

• 400 g fresh coconut, grated, or 300 g desiccated coconut soaked in 150 ml hot water
• 397 g tin condensed milk
• 150 ml coconut milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 100 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. IT IS COOKED UNTIL A SPOON DRAWN ACROSS THE PAN LEAVES A DRY TRAIL THAT DOES NOT CLOSE, or they will not hold their shape. That trail is the only reliable test and it comes later than expected -- around twenty-five minutes, well past the point where the mixture looks thick and spoonable. The spoon should scrape bare pan and the two sides should stay apart for a good two seconds. At that point enough water has gone that a spoonful dropped on a tray will sit up in a dome and keep it in the oven. Stopped when it merely looks thick, the mounds spread into flat discs the moment they are shaped and bake into biscuits.
2. IT IS STIRRED CONSTANTLY AND THE HEAT IS MODERATE. Condensed milk and sugar catch on the base of a pan readily, and scorched coconut is bitter. A wooden spoon moving the whole time and a medium-low heat, which makes the twenty-five minutes feel longer than it is.
3. THE YOLKS GO IN OFF THE HEAT AND ARE TEMPERED. Stirred into a ladleful of the hot mixture first and then returned to the pan with it off the stove. Added straight into a hot pan they scramble into threads that stay visible in the finished cocada.
4. FRESH COCONUT IS BETTER AND DESICCATED NEEDS SOAKING. Fresh grated coconut carries its own moisture and fat and gives a moist chewy cocada. Desiccated is bone dry and will drink the condensed milk and leave the mixture sandy; soaked in a hundred and fifty millilitres of hot water for twenty minutes first, it behaves close enough. Said plainly rather than listed as an equal.
5. THEY ARE BAKED ONLY TO COLOUR THE TOPS. Twelve to fifteen minutes in a hot oven. Everything is already cooked in the pan; the oven is there to toast the peaks and the edges to brown while the middle stays soft. Baked until firm throughout, they go hard and dry on cooling.
6. The coconut prepared -- fresh grated, or desiccated soaked in the 150 ml of hot water for 20 MINUTES.
7. The coconut, condensed milk, coconut milk, sugar and salt put in a heavy pan over a medium-low heat.
8. Cooked 25 MINUTES, STIRRED CONSTANTLY and the base scraped.
9. TESTED: a spoon drawn across the pan must leave a DRY TRAIL of bare pan that stays open for about 2 SECONDS. If it closes, keep going.
10. THE PAN TAKEN OFF THE HEAT.
11. The yolks beaten in a bowl, a ladleful of the hot mixture stirred INTO them, and then the lot returned to the pan and stirred through.
12. The vanilla stirred in. Cooled 10 minutes.
13. Heaped tablespoonfuls dropped onto a lined tray, well apart, and peaked with a fork.
14. CHECKED: the mounds must HOLD their dome. If they spread flat, the mixture needed longer and goes back in the pan.
15. Baked at 190°C for 12 to 15 MINUTES, until the peaks and edges are browned and the middles still soft.
16. Cooled completely on the tray. They keep 5 days in a tin.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes