Cocada

Cocada is a sweet in which coconut is bound together with sugar. In some versions, the coconut fibers are held together with sugar syrup and only the outside is set, leaving the inside moist; in others, egg is added and the mixture is baked, and the creamy interior is scooped out with a spoon. Sweets called cocada differ in texture from place to place across Latin America. The flavor and texture also change depending on whether white sugar or brown non-centrifugal sugar is used, and whether the coconut flesh is mixed in or coated over the outside.

Cooking the syrup first, then adding the coconut

One type of Brazilian white cocada is made by coarsely grating fresh coconut, adding it to a syrup made from sugar and water, and cooking it. First, the syrup alone is heated and reduced until a thin thread forms between drops lifted with a spoon. The coconut is then added and cooked briefly while being coated with the syrup.

At this stage, the whole mixture is still quite moist. After resting briefly, it is portioned into ovals or small mounds with two spoons and left to dry at room temperature. Even when the outside becomes firm, moist fibers remain inside. Rather than cooking the whole mixture into hard candy in the pan, this sweet is finished by shaping it after reduction and then drying it further.

In one method, the syrup is cooked without stirring before the coconut is added. Even after the coconut is added, stirring more than needed to coat it makes the sugar more likely to crystallize and turn grainy. The thickness of the coconut shreds, the concentration of the syrup, and the point at which the heat is turned off all change how the coconut holds together and how moist the center remains.

Versions with non-centrifugal sugar or milk, and baked versions with egg

Besides white sugar, there is also a method that binds the coconut with a non-centrifugal sugar called rapadura. On vendors’ trays in Bahia, white cocada is displayed alongside black cocada made with rapadura. Adding milk or condensed milk layers a milky flavor into the part that binds the coconut. Some versions also add passion fruit or pineapple.

Cocada de forno is cocada baked in an oven. When coconut and sugar are combined with eggs, butter, and other ingredients and baked in a shallow ovenproof dish, the top becomes a thin, toasty crust while the center stays creamy. In contrast to the versions cooked in a pan and portioned out, this one is made by setting an egg-containing mixture in the dish. It is eaten cooled and cut into pieces, or scooped from the dish.

Cocada sold on the streets of Brazil and Peru

In Bahia, the work of the baianas, who dress in cloth garments and adornments and sell food and sweets, is tied to the food culture of Afro-Brazilian women. In a cultural institution’s exhibit as well, white-sugar cocada and the dark version made with rapadura sit side by side on the same vendor’s tray. The formal object protected as Brazilian cultural heritage is the “craft of the baianas de acarajé,” and the work of making food and sweets and selling them on the street is protected as a whole.

In Peru, too, cocada has long been sold as a street sweet. Ricardo Palma’s 1896 definition describes it as “a sweet made with coco,” showing that the name was in use by at least the end of the 19th century. The period and route by which it arrived from Brazil are not known.

Example of cocada from Lima, Peru: a coconut dough filled with manjar blanco. Photo: Dtarazona, 2011-07-20, Lima, Peru. Original image / CC BY-SA 3.0. Downscaled version from the source; no additional processing.

Cocada from Muriqui, bought along a Brazilian highway. Shreds of coconut are visible. Photo: Avelludo, 2020-10-05, Muriqui, Brazil. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no additional processing.

Cooked and baked sweets from various regions, and cocada as a drink

In Lima, Peru, some coconut sweets are cooked in a pan and sold while still soft in small containers. By contrast, in the baked version recorded by cook Teresa Ocampo, coconut water and sugar are cooked, the coconut flesh is added, and egg yolks, toasted sesame seeds, port wine, and butter are mixed in before only the top is lightly browned in the oven. Versions finished entirely in the pan and those browned after cooking differ in the aroma of the surface and in how moist the interior turns out.

In Mexico, grated or finely chopped coconut is cooked with sugar or piloncillo. From the coast to the interior, there are regional differences in shape, firmness, and added ingredients.

In Chile, the name cocada is used both for a baked sweet of meringue and coconut and for a ball-shaped sweet made by mixing crushed biscuits with manjar blanco and coating it in coconut. Even though they look similarly white, a sweet that binds coconut flesh with syrup and one that coats the outside of a biscuit mixture with coconut are different inside.

In Venezuela, a cold drink made by adding sugar to coconut water or flesh is also called cocada. There, the same name is used not only for a sweet but also for a drink.

Glossary