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Campeche's most baroque convent dulce: a fried lard-rich fritter mounded with milky coconut cocada and crowned with a rose-tinted Italian meringue, finished with toasted coconut and silver dragees.
These are from Campeche. Not Yucatán, not Quintana Roo, Campeche. The walled port city on the Gulf where Spanish galleons unloaded sugar and almonds and Manila silks for two hundred years, and where the convents that lined the old streets perfected a baroque pastry tradition that the rest of Mexico still has not caught up to.
The fraile is named for a friar. The shape is meant to echo a tonsured head: round, crowned, slightly comic in its formality. The fritter underneath is a lard-rich dough cut with sherry, fried until it is the color of old gold. The cocada that mounds on top is made from fresh grated coconut, not the bagged shredded stuff from the baking aisle. Campeche is a coconut port. The cocada uses what came off the boats and what still grows on the trees lining the malecón.
The rose-tinted meringue is the signature. Italian meringue, cooked with a hot sugar syrup so it holds for hours without weeping, tinted the pale pink of the convent walls in late afternoon light. The silver dragees on top are a holdover from when convents decorated their dulces for saints' days and the bishop's visits.
This is not a casual dessert. It takes an afternoon. It uses lard, fresh coconut, sherry, and a candy thermometer. If that sounds like too much, this is not your dish yet. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo, especialmente en los dulces de convento.
The dulces of Campeche descend directly from the convent kitchens established in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly those associated with the orders of San Francisco and San Juan de Dios, which brought Spanish-Andalusian sugar work and Moorish almond-and-egg-yolk traditions to the New World port. Campeche's position as a sugar-importing hub and its proximity to the coconut plantations of the Yucatán peninsula made coconut-based dulces, including cocada, dulce de coco, and the more elaborate frailes, a regional signature distinct from the egg-yolk-heavy yemitas of Puebla or the dulce de leche traditions of the Bajío. The use of natural cochineal red for tinting confections is a pre-Columbian Mexican contribution that the convents adopted, and which still appears on the elaborate dulces displayed in the Mercado Principal of Campeche during patronal feast days.
Quantity
1
cracked, drained, and grated (about 3 cups fresh grated coconut)
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
Quantity
1 cup
Quantity
1 stick, about 3 inches
Quantity
3
lightly beaten
Quantity
2 cups
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1
Quantity
2
Quantity
3 tablespoons
melted and cooled
Quantity
1/4 cup
Quantity
2 tablespoons, as needed
Quantity
about 4 cups
for frying
Quantity
1 cup
Quantity
1/3 cup
Quantity
3
at room temperature
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon extract or 1 teaspoon rose water
Quantity
2 to 3 drops
Quantity
for garnish
Quantity
for garnish
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh mature coconutcracked, drained, and grated (about 3 cups fresh grated coconut) | 1 |
| granulated sugar (for the cocada) | 1 1/2 cups |
| whole milk | 1 cup |
| Mexican canela (Ceylon cinnamon) | 1 stick, about 3 inches |
| large egg yolkslightly beaten | 3 |
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups |
| granulated sugar (for the dough) | 2 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| large whole egg | 1 |
| large egg yolks (for the dough) | 2 |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard)melted and cooled | 3 tablespoons |
| dry sherry or anisette | 1/4 cup |
| cold whole milk | 2 tablespoons, as needed |
| vegetable oil or additional mantecafor frying | about 4 cups |
| granulated sugar (for the Italian meringue) | 1 cup |
| water | 1/3 cup |
| large egg whitesat room temperature | 3 |
| cream of tartar | 1/4 teaspoon |
| natural rose extract or rose water | 1/4 teaspoon extract or 1 teaspoon rose water |
| natural cochineal or beet-based red food coloring | 2 to 3 drops |
| toasted coconut shavings (optional) | for garnish |
| silver dragees or grageas de plata (optional) | for garnish |
Pierce the coconut eyes with a clean screwdriver and drain the water into a measuring cup. Save it. Crack the shell open with the back of a heavy knife or a hammer wrapped in a towel. Pry the meat from the shell, peel off the brown skin, and grate it on the medium holes of a box grater. Three cups of fresh grated coconut is what you need. Bagged shredded coconut from the baking aisle is dried, sweetened, and wrong for this dish. The cocada needs the moisture and the milky fat of fresh coconut. No me vengas con atajos.
In a heavy 4-quart saucepan, combine the grated coconut, 1 1/2 cups sugar, milk, and the canela stick. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be loose at first, then it will thicken slowly over 25 to 30 minutes. You are looking for the moment the spoon leaves a clear track across the bottom of the pan and the cocada pulls together in a glossy mass. Do not walk away. The sugar burns fast and a burned cocada is a wasted afternoon.
Pull the pan off the heat. Discard the canela stick. Take a tablespoon of the hot cocada and whisk it into the beaten yolks to warm them, then whisk a second spoonful in, then a third. Pour the tempered yolks back into the pan and return to low heat. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes more, until the yolks are cooked through and the cocada is the color of buttered ivory. Scrape it into a shallow dish and let it cool completely. It will firm up as it sits. Make this the day before if you can. A rested cocada handles better.
In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center. Add the whole egg, the two yolks, the melted lard, and the sherry. Mix with your fingers, pulling the flour in from the edges, until a shaggy dough forms. Add cold milk a teaspoon at a time only if the dough refuses to come together. Turn it onto a clean counter and knead for 5 minutes until smooth, supple, and slightly elastic. Cover with a clean cloth and rest for 20 minutes. The lard is what makes this dough fry up crisp and tender at the same time. La manteca es el sabor, even in the dulces.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, about the size of a walnut. Roll each one into a smooth ball, then flatten it into a disk about 3 inches across, slightly thicker at the center than at the edges. The shape echoes a friar's tonsured head, which is where the name comes from. Place the disks on a parchment-lined sheet pan and let them rest for another 10 minutes while you heat the oil.
In a heavy deep skillet or cazo, heat the oil to 340F. A small piece of dough should rise immediately and sizzle steadily without browning in the first ten seconds. Fry the disks two or three at a time, turning once, for 2 to 3 minutes per side. They should puff slightly and turn the color of old gold, not mahogany. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack. Never on paper towels. Paper towels trap the steam underneath and the bottom turns soggy. The convent cooks of Campeche knew this two hundred years before anyone invented a paper towel.
Once the fritters are cool enough to handle but still slightly warm, take a heaping tablespoon of cocada paste and mound it on top of each one. Smooth it with the back of a spoon into a dome that covers the whole top surface and comes nearly to the edge. The warmth of the fritter helps the cocada settle and adhere. Set them on a serving platter, cocada side up, while you make the meringue.
In a small heavy saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and the water. Stir once to wet all the sugar, then leave it alone. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook without stirring until the syrup reaches 240F on a candy thermometer, the soft-ball stage. This takes 6 to 8 minutes. While it cooks, start whipping the egg whites with the cream of tartar in a stand mixer on medium speed until they hold soft peaks.
With the mixer running at medium-high, pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl in a steady thin stream. Avoid hitting the whisk. Once all the syrup is in, raise the speed to high and whip for 6 to 8 minutes, until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch and the meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks that curl over but do not droop. Add the rose extract and 2 drops of the coloring. Mix on low just until the color is even. You want the pale pink of a Yucatecan flamboyán flower in early May, not the loud pink of a quinceañera dress.
Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe a tall rosette or a generous swirl over the cocada on each fraile, covering it completely. Scatter a few toasted coconut shavings and, if you like, a silver dragee on top of each one. The convent cooks of Campeche finished their dulces this way: baroque, generous, unapologetic. Serve within a few hours at room temperature. The meringue is at its best the day it is made. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 160g)
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