Coconut Sweetmeats
Sketch of a woman selling Sweet meats and 19th-century Brazil, source unknown.
Writing in the 1820s, British traveler Maria Graham says of Rio “from the noble to the slave, sweetmeats of every description, from the most delicate preserves and candies to the coarsest preparations” made with coconut “are swallowed wholesale.” One see’s similar scenes in sugar based plantation societies throughout the Americas with African American women making sugar based sweets out of inexpensive ingredients such as coconut.
Beijinhos de Coco Recipe
Ingredients
A can of sweetened condensed milk (vegans, I substitute plant based products for this and the other ingredients in this recipe)
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 lb freshly grated coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Mix all the ingredients together completely. Cook using a heavy saucepan and keep stirring until you see the bottom of the pan. Pour into a plate and let it cool completely. Grease your hands then make small balls, roll them in sugar and put them on small pieces of wax paper. Recipes makes 30 kisses.