Bebinca

Bebinca is a layered sweet of egg yolks and coconut milk from Goa, on India’s west coast. Its cut surface shows alternating bands of pale batter and browned, baked surfaces. The layers are built by pouring a small amount of batter into a single pan, baking the surface each time, and adding new batter on top. It is also called bibik and is sometimes spelled bebinka.

Cross-section of a nine-layer bebinca. Lisbon, 2009, Elingunnur (photo source／CC BY-SA 4.0)

Separately baked surfaces become stripes

The basic batter is a mixture of egg yolks, sugar, coconut milk and wheat flour. It is poured thinly into a ghee-greased pan, and once the surface has colored, more ghee and batter are added. Baking one layer and pouring the next on top is repeated until the desired number of layers is reached. Ghee is milk fat with water and milk solids removed. In addition to the fat in the batter itself, it is also added between the layers.

In the method that Goan chef Varun Inamdar inherited from his grandmother, the egg yolks are loosened to a creamy consistency but not whipped to make them rise. The batter is poured thinly and baked under a top-heat grill until the surface turns golden. Because the surface is baked before the next batter goes in, the boundaries between the repeatedly baked layers remain in the finished cross-section.

This recipe (ingredient proportions and method) aims for thin layers of about 0.5 cm. Layer thickness and heat vary from household to household. The number of layers also ranges widely, from 7 to 16 or so, and 16 layers were handed down in Inamdar’s family. The more layers there are, the more times the batter must be poured, and the more times one must wait while checking how the surface has browned.

Traditionally, one method heats the first layer from beneath the pan, then bakes the following layers by burning coconut shells or similar fuel on top of the lid. A 2008 record of Goan home cooking also describes this sequence of first setting the bottom and then making use of top heat. Today it is also made in ovens or salamanders that provide top heat. Heat from above is closely bound up with a method that bakes a new surface again and again. Some methods add nutmeg or cardamom, bringing each household’s aroma to the rich flavor of coconut milk, egg yolk, sugar and ghee.

An example of home-made bebinca from Goa (location unknown). 2016, Josephdesouza (photo source／CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the earthen ovens called tizals, a thin layer of sand is spread over the inside bottom and the baking pan is set on top. The sand keeps the pan from touching the earthen oven directly and also serves to retain heat.

In electric and gas ovens as well, a method is used in which the first layer is heated from above and below and the following layers are baked mainly with top heat. Some commercial products add brown caramel to part of the batter and pour the batters alternately to heighten the contrast between layers. In this method, the color of the caramel batter is layered on top of the color of the baked surfaces.

A story handed down with the name of the nun Bebiana

The origin of bebinca features the Convent of Santa Monica in Old Goa. According to legend, after a nun named Bebiana used egg whites to stiffen garments, she used the leftover yolks in a sweet rather than let them go to waste, creating a layered pudding with coconut milk and ghee. The name bebinca is also said to be linked to her name.

Another telling says that the first seven layers represented the seven hills of Lisbon and Old Goa. It goes on to say that when the nun served it to a priest, he said it was too small, so she added more layers. This oral tradition explains the origin of the number of layers in a sweet that stacks layers beyond seven.

The Museum of Christian Art at Santa Monica also presents this story as oral tradition at events for learning about the sweet. The history of the convent and the story of the sweet attributed to a nun are still carried on in the same place.

The Geographical Indication for “Goan Bebinca”

On August 1, 2023, a Geographical Indication registration certificate was issued for “Goan Bebinca,” with Goa as the production area. The applicant was an association of Goan bakers and confectioners. The published production method describes it as a layered sweet using coconut milk, egg yolk, flour, sugar, ghee and nutmeg, and records both earthen ovens and electric and gas ovens. Layered baking, handed down from homes to small workshops, has also come to be covered by a system that links a regional name with a production method.

Bebinca by the same name, without layers

The name bebinca has also been passed down outside Goa in different forms. Macau’s bebinca de leite is a baked custard made with milk. There is also a taro cake called bebinca de inhame, and neither is layered. In Goa, too, a single-layer version made with mashed potatoes is known. There is also a milk-based version in which milk, rice flour and coconut milk are first heated, then cooled, combined with egg yolks and baked as a single layer. Depending on how flour, tubers and milk are used and whether the sweet is baked in layers, different sweets exist under the same name.

Bebinca is also found in East Timor, but it is not clear whether it or Goa’s came first, or in which direction it traveled. The Philippines’ bibingka and others also have similar names. The connections among these sweets are discussed against the background of the movement of people during the colonial period.

The effort behind Goan celebrations

Bebinca is known as a sweet that brings together Portuguese-influenced confectionery culture, which uses many egg yolks, and Goan ingredients such as coconut. It appears at Christmas, weddings and other celebrations, and each family hands down its own method. A single cut slice holds repeated work: mixing the egg yolks, pouring thinly, waiting until it bakes, and pouring again. The stripes on the cut surface are not decorative lines but the traces of baking the surface of each layer.

A plate served with ice cream. Location unknown, 2006, Warren Noronha (photo source／CC BY 2.0)

Glossary