Boniatillo

the Cuban sweet from the Taíno inheritance: sweet potato cooked until completely yielding, pressed through a sieve, and then cooked again with sugar, lime, and cinnamon into a rich, smooth amber paste served in small portions as a confection or dessert

Origin: Havana and the Caribbean coast of Cuba

From the journey of Sweet Potato.

The boniato (the Antillean Spanish term for sweet potato, preserving a form of the Taíno word batata) has been cultivated in the Caribbean for at least four thousand years before Columbus arrived on Hispaniola in December 1492 and encountered it as one of the central foods of the Taíno people. It passed from the Caribbean into the Cuban, Puerto Rican, and broader Antillean culinary traditions of the colonial period, carried through the intersecting food cultures of the Taíno, the Spanish settlers, and the enslaved Africans brought to the islands from the sixteenth century onward. Boniatillo is the concentrated expression of this tradition: a confection made by cooking sweet potato to a paste and then reducing it with sugar into a smooth, intensely sweet preparation with a texture somewhere between a thick jam and a soft fudge. It belongs to the Cuban tradition of dulces (sweet preserves and confections) that includes pasta de guayaba (guava paste) and coquito acaramelado (caramelised coconut), a tradition maintained by the dulceras (confectionery-makers) of Havana's neighbourhood sweet shops. The lime juice and cinnamon that finish the boniatillo are the Spanish contribution, brightening and complicating what would otherwise be a very simple sweetness. Boniatillo is served in small ceramic dishes or moulded into individual portions, eaten as a dessert with a small spoon or spread on a cracker as a confection. It is also a traditional component of the Cuban Christmas Eve (Nochebuena) table.

Ingredients

Boniatillo

1 kg boniato or orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
250 g white sugar
120 ml water
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1 strip lime peel, pith removed
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 pinch fine salt

To Serve

0.5 tsp ground cinnamon, for dusting

Method

Place the sweet potato chunks in a medium saucepan, cover generously with cold water, and bring to the boil. Cook over medium heat for 20–25 minutes until completely tender — a knife should slide through without any resistance.
Drain the sweet potato thoroughly. Press through a fine-mesh sieve or mouli into a clean saucepan. Discard any fibrous material that will not pass through.
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, cloves, and lime peel. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for 5 minutes. Strain the syrup into the sweet potato purée, discarding the whole spices.
Set the saucepan of sweet potato purée and syrup over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently and scraping the base and sides to prevent sticking, for 20–25 minutes until the mixture has thickened considerably: it should pull away from the sides of the pan, mound when dropped from a spoon, and leave the pan largely clean when you draw a spoon through it. Add the lime juice and salt in the last 5 minutes.
Pour or spoon into small ceramic dishes, ramekins, or a lightly greased shallow dish. Smooth the surface and leave to cool completely. Dust lightly with ground cinnamon before serving.

Notes

In Cuba, the white-fleshed boniato variety (firmer, less sweet, with a nuttier, chestnut-like flavour) is traditional, but orange-fleshed sweet potato produces a more intensely coloured and sweeter result. If using white-fleshed boniato, increase the sugar by 30 g and cook slightly longer to achieve the same depth of flavour. Boniatillo can also be moulded into cylinder shapes using a length of cling film, chilled until firm, then sliced and served on a plate. A spoonful of crème fraîche or a thin layer of cream cheese alongside cuts through the sweetness pleasantly.

The Gastrographer

Name: Boniatillo
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Havana and the Caribbean coast of Cuba
Ingredients: 1 kg boniato or orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks; 250 g white sugar; 120 ml water; 1 cinnamon stick; 4 whole cloves; 1 strip lime peel, pith removed; 2 tbsp fresh lime juice; 1 pinch fine salt; 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon, for dusting

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control