Antillean Eats

Curaçao Coconut Candy / Kokada

Sweets · Submitted by: Elsa Bulbaai

Information

Kokada is a coconut candy that originated on the islands of Curaçao,Bonaire, and Aruba. These candies can be bought anywhere on the island. You can by them or at snack bars, on the streets of downtown.

Ingredients

2 dried coconut
1 lb of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of rose essence
2 cup of water
Optional Food coloring if you desire to color the candy

Preparation

break the coconuts and take out the coconut meat
Remove the dark skin from the coconut meat
Shred the coconut meat
In a pot, put the 2 cup of water on medium to high heat and add the rose essence and the vanilla extract
Keep stirring the mix until the water starts to crystalize
As soon as the sugar mixture start to crystalize slowly pour the shredded coconut into the cooking sugar water.
Keep stirring until the mixture becomes thick.
After having the thickness desired lower the heat on the pot.
With a wooden spoon, scope out the mixture in desired quantity and put them on a baking pan and let it cool down.

Coloring Hints :

To change color of candy from white to any other color, add food coloring to mixture before adding coconut
For dark brown coloring, leave the skin on the coconut meat before shredding and use brown sugar instread of regular sugar.

Candy Thickness :

If you desire to make bigger and harder candies, use 2 lbs of sugar instead of 1 lb

Water start to Crystalize :

To know if water started to crystalize, you can use a spoon and takesome of the sugar water and drip it into a water cup. If the water takes a little bit to drop from the spoon and took a little bit to desolve in the cup, mean the water started to crystalize and is ready to pour the coconut.