Cocada, coconut tabuleiro sweets

"The tabuleiro of the Baiana concentrates and reproduces collective cultural practices, among them, the techniques of making foods such as (...) coconut candy (black or white)..."

Baked Coconut Candy (2017) by Alexandre SchneiderInstituto Brasil a Gosto

Intangible Heritage

The excerpts shown here are part of the Dossier registered in the Book of Knowledge in 2005, when the craft of the Baianas de Acarajé became a Brazilian Intangible Cultural Heritage, registered by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan).

Intangible Heritage

Although the acarajé is the centerpiece of the dossier, it is accompanied by other traditional recipes which are also part of the Baianas "de tabuleiro" (a type of table or tray for the display of food).

Coconut and its by-products (2015) by Alexandre SchneiderInstituto Brasil a Gosto

African Heritage

"according to regional custom, [the baianas] preserve ancestral African recipes, especially from the West Coast, with emphasis on those of the Yoruba"

Egg And Coconut Pudding ingredients (2018) by Bel MoherdauiInstituto Brasil a Gosto

"The baiana's board concentrates and reproduces collective cultural practices, among them, the techniques for making foods such as abará, student’s doughnut, black coconut, white coconut candy, passarinha (fried bovine spleen), peanut brittle, tamarind candy, lelê (corn cake)..."

Coconut (2015) by Alexandre SchneiderInstituto Brasil a Gosto

Coconut

"The landscape and cuisine of Northeast Brazil would not be the same without the presence of the vast coconut groves that take over its coastline - Bahia, for example, would not have coconut candy or egg and coconut pudding; in Pernambuco, there would be no Souza Leão cake," from the book Misture a Gosto

Baked coconut candy ingredients (2018) by Bel MoherdauiInstituto Brasil a Gosto

Ingredients

Traditional coconut candy is made with a few ingredients. In general, finely grated dried coconut and sugar or rapadura sugar. Sometimes fruits are added to the recipe, like passion fruit or pineapple.

The traditional recipe has been modified along the years into new recipes and ways of eating it. One of them is the baked coconut candy. 

Baked coconut candy (2018) by Ana Luiza TrajanoInstituto Brasil a Gosto

Step-by-step

Learn how to make baked coconut candy with Chef Ana Luiza Trajano or click here to access the website for the full recipe in English.

Shrimp bobó (2017) by Alexandre SchneiderInstituto Brasil a Gosto

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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