Cocada Yucateca (Palanqueta de Coco)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart copper or stainless pot for sugar work
• •Wooden pala or sturdy wooden spoon
• •Box grater with medium holes
• •Candy thermometer (optional, the cold-water test works)
• •Papel encerado (waxed paper) sheets
• •Wooden board or clean countertop for forming

Instructions

1. 1

   Crack and grate the coconut

   Pierce the three eyes of the coconut with a clean nail and drain the water into a glass. Drink the water or save it for an agua fresca, it does not go in the candy. Wrap the coconut in a kitchen towel and crack it open with a heavy hammer on the floor or against a stone. Pry the meat away from the shell with the tip of a sturdy knife. You do not need to peel off the brown skin. In Yucatán the skin stays, the fleck of dark in the candy is part of how a real cocada looks.

   Dried coconut from a bag is not the same and I will not pretend it is. Bagged coconut has been sweetened and stripped of its natural oil. No me vengas con atajos. Find a fresh coconut at any Mexican or Caribbean market.
2. 2

   Grate by hand

   Grate the coconut on the medium holes of a box grater. You want strands, not powder. A food processor pulses the meat into wet pulp and the candy goes gummy. Hand grating gives you the fine threads that hold the caramel and give the palanqueta its signature texture. You should have about three packed cups.

3. 3

   Build the caramel base

   Combine the azúcar mascabado, the chopped piloncillo, the water, and the stick of canela in a heavy 4-quart copper or stainless pot. Set it over medium heat and stir with a wooden pala until the sugars dissolve completely. Stop stirring once you see it come to a simmer. From here you only swirl the pot. Stirring crystallizes the sugar against the walls and your caramel goes grainy.

4. 4

   Cook the syrup to soft-ball

   Let the syrup bubble at medium heat for about 12 to 15 minutes. It will deepen from brown to mahogany and the bubbles will go from wide and lazy to tight and shiny. You are taking it to soft-ball stage, around 235 to 240 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a half teaspoon of syrup into a cup of cold water. It should form a soft pliable ball you can roll between your fingers. The señoras of the Lucas de Gálvez market do not own thermometers and neither did my mother. The cold-water test is older than any candy gauge and it is reliable.

   Do not walk away. Caramel turns from perfect to burnt in under a minute and there is no rescue. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.
5. 5

   Add the coconut

   Pull the canela stick out and discard it. Add the grated coconut, the lime juice, and the salt to the hot syrup all at once. Now you stir. Use the wooden pala and work the coconut through the caramel for 8 to 10 minutes over medium-low heat. The mixture will look wet and loose at first and then start to pull away from the sides of the pot. The lime juice is not for flavor, it is to keep the sugar from seizing. That is a Yucatecan trick the merengueros learned from the women who came before them.

6. 6

   Test for readiness

   Drop a spoonful onto a cold plate. It should hold its shape and feel tacky but not wet. If it spreads into a puddle, keep cooking another two minutes. If it sets up hard and snaps, you went too far and the palanquetas will be brittle instead of chewy. You want the texture between, dense and yielding, the cocada you bite into at a Mérida park bench from a merenguero's bandeja.

7. 7

   Form the palanquetas

   Tear sheets of papel encerado and lay them across a wooden board or a clean countertop. Rub the wooden pala lightly with butter. Drop heaping tablespoons of the coconut mixture onto the papel, spacing them apart. Flatten each one with the buttered pala into a rough disc about three inches across and a quarter inch thick. The shape is not meant to be perfect. A merenguero's palanqueta has the marks of the pala on it. That is the proof a human hand made it, not a machine.

8. 8

   Cool and lift

   Let the palanquetas cool completely on the papel encerado, at least 30 minutes. They will firm up as they sit. Once they are fully set, peel them off the papel. Stack them between fresh sheets of papel in a tin or a clay olla with a lid. They keep at room temperature for two weeks. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Azúcar mascabado is the dark unrefined Mexican cane sugar and it is what gives the palanqueta its depth. American brown sugar is a compromise, not an upgrade, and it will give you a paler, flatter-tasting candy. Mexican groceries carry mascabado. So do most Caribbean markets.
• •Canela, the soft true cinnamon from Sri Lanka that Mexico imports, is not the same as the hard cassia bark sold in American supermarkets. The Mexican stick is light brown, papery, and crumbles easily. Cassia is acrid and will overpower the coconut. If you cannot find real canela, leave it out entirely.
• •Do not skip the lime juice. A small acid keeps the sugar molecules from locking into crystals and turning the candy grainy. The lime is invisible in the finished palanqueta but you taste it in the texture, smooth instead of sandy.
• •If you want a more rustic version the way they sell them in Valladolid, fold in a half cup of toasted pepitas or chopped almendras when you add the coconut. It is not traditional in Mérida but it is traditional somewhere in the peninsula. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Yucatán is big enough to hold more than one version.

Advance Preparation

• •The palanquetas keep at room temperature for two weeks stacked between sheets of papel encerado in a tin or a clay olla with a tight lid. They do not need refrigeration and refrigeration actually hurts them by drawing moisture into the sugar.
• •Fresh grated coconut can be prepared one day ahead and kept refrigerated in a sealed container. Bring it to room temperature before adding to the hot syrup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)