Doce de Coco

Cape Verde's coconut sweet: grated coconut cooked into a dark caramel until it gathers into chewy golden nuggets, wrapped one by one in paper for weddings and holidays

Origin: Santiago & the Cape Verde Islands

From the journey of Coconut.

Doce de coco, coconut sweet, is the best-known sweet of Cape Verde. Sugar is melted to a deep caramel, water is added to loosen it, and grated coconut is stirred in and cooked until the mixture thickens, darkens, and pulls away from the pan. Spooned out and left to cool, it sets into chewy, golden-brown nuggets, which are wrapped one by one in coloured or decorated paper. It keeps for weeks, and it is made in quantity for weddings and holidays and sold in the markets as a snack. The sweet belongs to the islands where the coconut first entered the Atlantic world. The Portuguese had coconut palms growing in Cape Verde by 1499, and in 1553 they carried seedlings from the islands to Bahia, where Brazil turned the nut into its own cocada, usually made there with condensed milk. The Cape Verdean sweet keeps to the older, simpler formula of coconut and caramel, sometimes with a little butter or a strip of lemon zest, and Cape Verdean cooks also bake coconut into queijadas and puddings.

Ingredients

Doce

  • 200 g freshly grated coconut, or unsweetened desiccated coconut
  • 200 g white sugar
  • 150 ml water
  • 1 tbsp butter (optional)
  • 1 strip lemon zest (optional)

To Finish

  • Small squares of greaseproof or decorative paper, for wrapping

Method

  1. Line a tray with baking paper, or butter it lightly.
  2. Melt the sugar in a heavy pan over a medium heat, without stirring but swirling the pan, until it becomes an even amber caramel.
  3. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the water carefully, standing back, as it will spit and seize. Return to a low heat and stir until the hardened caramel has dissolved.
  4. Add the coconut and lemon zest and cook, stirring constantly, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the mixture has thickened, darkened, and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Stir in the butter, if using.
  5. Drop small spoonfuls onto the tray, or spread the mixture and cut it into pieces while still warm. Leave to cool completely.
  6. Wrap each piece in paper, twisting the ends. Store in an airtight tin.

Notes

Fresh coconut gives a softer, moister sweet; desiccated coconut a chewier one. Doce de coco keeps for two to three weeks wrapped in a cool, dry place.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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