Coconut candy – calling on all sweet tooth’s

I hope you have just read my Gurudi experiment HERE. Staying with Coconut, I decided to make another childhood favourite of mine, Coconut Candy as I had leftover grated Coconut that I had no intention of wasting, considering the process of grating. I also had leftover Salted Caramel in the freezer, so technically this is Salted Caramel Coconut Candy. Unless you don’t like sweet stuff or coconut, there is not a soul alive that doesn’t like Coconut Candy. Its yummy caramelised sticky goodness. If you are making this for kids, prepare for the fabled sugar high because they will be bouncing off the walls. Coconut candy is one of those candies adults too enjoy, so the annoyance and pain of grating will be worth it.

Grating Coconut is a pain, especially if you want to extract the juice. With Coconut Candy on the other hand, you use another side of the grater with bigger holes. Unfortunately, I grated the Coconut for Gurundi, so I used the smaller side. See pictures below.

Yes the coconut came out finer, but it still tastes the same. Coconut candy is simple, simple, simple to make. It needs only two ingredients – grated coconut and sugar. It also cooks in minutes. You can switch things up by adding vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon or even chilli powder. It is up to you. This same process also applies for Candied ginger which I also enjoy in moderation before it starts making me sick. Lol. If you want something with extra punch, add shavings of ginger to the grated coconut, or maybe chopped nuts.

You will need

3/4 cup of Grated Coconut

1/2 cup of Sugar

the amount you will need will depend on how much of it you intend to make

How To

I will like to add that I used Salted Caramel for this. I had some leftover in the freezer, and I wanted to try something new. Coconut candy is made from simple caramel – salt and sugar. I wanted to introduce an extra dimension of flavour as my Salted Caramel contains salt, sugar, water, double cream, milk and butter. My recipe is HERE. Make this, and you will never buy Caramel out of a bottle again

If you just want simple Coconut Candy, here are the instructions

1. Pour 1/4 cup of water into a deep saucepan, pour the sugar into the saucepan and turn up the heat to medium.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Keep a close watch until the sugar solution turns a nice caramel colour. This will take took 7 – 9 minutes.

Do NOT stir the sugar solution and be very watchful. As soon as the colour starts to change to golden brown, shake the saucepan to spread the caramel evenly otherwise the centre will burn while the outer edges haven’t fully caramelised. You don’t want burnt caramel.

You should end up with this golden brown sugar syrup

The steps above show how to make Caramel. At this point you add the grated coconut. Continue following my instructions below. Yes the caramel is different, but the process is still the same.

2. Once you have your Caramel either plain sugar caramel as seen above or salted caramel as shown below

3. Lower the heat and add the grated coconut. Keep stirring to properly combine, and continue stirring until the grated coconut breaks down to become sticky. You also need to taste, to be sure the coconut has absorbed the caramel, otherwise you won’t get the harmony of both ingredients. Keep frying until the colour changes to a dark shade of caramel

…………and there you have it. Coconut Candy.

This will be perfect on a summer weekend. Serve with chilled fruit juice. To make this more decadent, serve with small bowls of melted chocolate as dips. I can hear your blood sugar levels rising to the roof. Lol

I will like to add this though. Using Salted caramel, the coconut candy will not be as hard and as crunchy as plain sugar caramel due to the butter, milk and cream, but it will taste better which is a good trade-off. You can place in the freezer to make it harden.

I think this is enough Coconut recipes for now. I have written about Coconut rice (recipe HERE), Tapioca special (recipe HERE), Gurundi (recipe HERE), and now Coconut Candy which just about rounds it off nicely. what do you guys think?