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Friday, December 17, 2010

Candied Coconut - White sugar version


I made candied coconut with gula melaka (palm sugar) way back in 2008. I was very very satisfied with the result. So, with another blogger meet-up coming up (I'm the last to blog about it, so I'll not go into the details, you can read about it at Sonia's, Swee San's, Reese's and Pei Lin's), it's a good chance for me to make this again, since making too little is a bit too wasteful and too much for personal comsumption is not a good idea :)
Good things are meant to be shared, HAHAHAHAH!! Don't ever get fat alone, LOL.



So, you must be wondering, where did I get my coconut flesh.
From the wet market!!

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Long ago(20 yrs ago), we could only buy grated coconut from the market.
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Sometime back then (about 15 yrs ago) , we could buy freshly squeezed coconut milk from the market, and it's made with coconuts that were halved and grated by holding the coconut halves against the electric grater, then the grated coconut is poured into a machine to get the milk out.
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The latest : You won't find the electric grater with a sharp ball and a upright basin at the wet market.
What you will see is a grater that works like a paper shredder. Put the whole pieces of flesh in the upright feeding hole, and what comes out is finely grated coconut. Then the grated coconut is then poured into the extrator and milk comes out :) The latest method is a lot lot faster!
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So, what does this has to do with where to get the coconut flesh pieces???
The answer is, get your coconut flesh pieces from the coconut milk vendor before they turn it into grated coconut. LOL. Sorry just being a bad joker here.



This time, I made 2 versions, the old palm sugar version and I tried out the old fashioned white sugar version.



Recipe is pretty easy

Just keep the ratio of sugar to coconut, 1: 2 and you'll be fine. Means, if you used 1kg coconut flesh, use 500gm sugar. And I mean cleaned peeled coconut. Not the initial weight that you bought from the market. Last time I used the weight I bought and ended up with too much sugar in the pot, a bit wasted.

So, here's how





Cook on medium heat until the whole pot of coconut looks watery and reduce to low heat to cook until totally dry. Stir and toss with chopsticks not spoon. Stirring is only needed occasionally until it looks almost dry, then it has to be all the time.

So, here's how the white one looks like immediately after cooking. Pretty dry right? And nope, the base is not burnt.

Not too difficult right?


And one thing, I want to share with you.
If you think that you want to buy the purest and best gula melaka to make this snack, DO NOT DO THAT!

The one above is the latest and the one below was done in 2008

Can you see the difference of my latest attempt with the old one?
One looks dry and one looks clumpy with sugar.
Last time, I used those light coloured palm sugar (light brown not Thai milky coloured ones), which are a lot less pure(made with added white sugar) and are harder.
Pure ones are soft and moist, crumbly when pressed and definately needs refrigeration, if not it'll sweat.
Using pure ones is a bad decision.
I forgot that raw sugars like this are acidic, and when it's acidic, the sugar won't dry properly and stayed in clumps. So in times like these, better buy the less pure stuff so that you can have dry dry coconut, not clumpy ones.


And if you're wondering what am I wearing in that pic? Looks frumpy... Well, it's a maternity dress.
Yes, I am almost 4 month preggers now and the baby's due early June.
I haven't been cooking or baking since early October (unless I have no choice), up until 2 days before the lastest blogger meet (just last week), and yeah, the blog is running with no baking and cooking in my kitchen and it could still run with daily posts until March, yes it's that crazy.
Baking and cooking mojo has been on super low gear during the 1st trimester and I'm glad it's back now.

But I won't be on high gear til very much later, I'm busy busy busy now, and hopefully by Jan, I'll be moving into my new house with a new oven and a few more new toys.

14 comments:

  1. hehe both version looks very delish but i must prefer the white version!

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  2. I didn't know this can be homemade! Impressive!

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  3. I love the look of the white ones! Look better than those sold outside! Yum!

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  4. Wendy...this is hard work leh. Have to shave off the brown skin then have to peel it with the peeler one by one...love of labor from you . Pei Lin , Sonia and Swee San have to remember your labor of love when they take a bite of it :)

    Thanks for the tips.. will remember them when I make them :)

    Merry Xmas to you and family,

    Elin

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  5. congratulations to you!! if you dont tell that you r wearing a maternity dress, i couldnt tell from the photo which one is you. wow, even with no baking or cooking now, your blog are still able to come up with daily posts, you are a fanatic cook! have to salute you!

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  6. Congratulations to you and your hubby! Hoping for a boy this time? I love this coconut candy. It is a must in our household during CNY. It has been a while since I had that. Look easy to make but thinking of cracking the coconut, peeling etc makes me lazy :)

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  7. Intesting candy recipe.....I like coconut!

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  8. Seem easy..must try to do it! Thanks.

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  9. Congrats on #3 :)
    I noticed the slices of coconut in the brown sugar version is thicker, was it intentional? Any specific reason? The thin white ones look so much like reels of ribbon and so pure, I'm sure it's very fragrant since it was cooked with hard work of labour and love!

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  10. HKChoo,
    Yeah, it was done on purpose.
    When I tasted the gula melaka version, bought ones, it was sliced this way, and it gave better chewing texture, so I made it this way again.
    Just that this time, I wanted to try using my new "Victorinox" so I tried shaving it into ribbons, LOL. If not, I'll still slice it short and thick.

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  11. Wendy, oh that is great news, your husband must be so happy about it, congrats!

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  12. Wendy,

    Thanks for the wonderful recipes. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog and drool over the mouth watering pictures of your food.

    I tried for the first time the candied coconut, both the white sugar version and the gula melaka version and they turned out superb.

    My friends and I enjoyed the gula melaka version more because it is more fragrant.

    Thanks again.

    Nyun Peng

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  13. Nyun Peng,
    thanks for the feedback.
    Me too, prefer the gula melaka version :)

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