- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Prep 20 minutes
- Cook 55 minutes
- Serves 8
Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.
Ingredients
- 1 fresh coconut (about 250g of flesh)
- 20g ginger, peeled and grated
- 225g dark brown soft sugar
- Half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
- A quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg
- A pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Let's cook
- Open the coconut. Push a clean screwdriver through the softest of the three dark "eyes" and pour the water out. Wrap the coconut in a tea towel and hit it hard around the middle with a rolling pin until it cracks. Prise the white flesh away from the shell with a blunt knife.
- Peel off the thin brown skin with a vegetable peeler if you like (keeping it is traditional). Cut the flesh into small cubes, about 5mm. You need about 250g.
- Put the coconut cubes, ginger and 250ml water in a heavy pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Keep it at a steady bubble on a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring often, until most of the liquid has gone and the syrup is thick and sticky and coats the back of a spoon.
- Take it off the heat and stir in the vanilla. Hot sugar burns badly, so keep children away and do not taste it yet.
- Lay a sheet of baking paper on a tray. Drop tablespoons of the mixture onto it, leaving a gap between each, to make about 16 drops.
- Leave them for 30 minutes until cool and firm.
Tips
- If the drops stay runny, the syrup was not cooked long enough. Scrape them back into the pan and bubble for 3 to 5 minutes more.
- Soak the pan in hot water straight away: set sugar dissolves off easily.
Swaps
- No fresh coconut: use 200g unsweetened coconut chips and simmer them in the water for 5 minutes only.
- Lighter flavour: use light brown soft sugar instead of dark.
Tags
In Plant powered.
None of the 14 allergens is in this recipe as written. Coconut is not counted as a tree nut under UK rules.
Check every packet for allergens.