Cocada is coconut cooked with sugar until it holds a mound. The white one (cocada branca) is the home tray sweet. The brown one (cocada queimada) is the same idea cooked darker, often with brown sugar. Both are from the Northeast. After a churrasco they sit on a plate the way brigadeiros do: already made, no last-minute work.
Ingredients (about 20 mounds)
- 3 cups (240 g) unsweetened shredded coconut (coco ralado)
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar (açúcar)
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) water
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) unsalted butter (manteiga), optional, for a softer bite
For cocada queimada, swap the white sugar for packed light brown sugar and cook a minute longer, until the mix is the color of caramel. When you go to a Latin market, ask for coco ralado if the supermarket bag is the sweet baking kind; rinse that one and dry it, or the mounds stay wet.
Method
- Put the sugar and water in a wide saucepan. Heat over medium until the sugar dissolves and the syrup looks clear, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in the coconut and the butter if you are using it. Keep stirring. The mix will look wet, then thick. When it pulls away from the pan in one mass and a spoonful holds a pile, it is ready. That is usually 8 to 12 minutes. Pull it while it is still soft enough to mound.
- Drop warm mounds onto a buttered plate or a sheet of parchment. They set as they cool, 20 to 30 minutes.
How you know it’s done
When it pulls away from the pan in one mass and a spoonful holds a pile, it is ready. They set as they cool.
After a churrasco
Make them the morning of the fire, or the day before. Keep them loosely covered at room temperature. Put the plate out after the meat. Cafezinho or a glass of water is enough with something this sweet. They keep three days in a tin.
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