Bala Baiana
My husband often has snack requests when he sees some viral video. This month it was bala baiana, Brazilian coconut caramel candies. The caramel is a bit temperamental and you want the texture perfect because the contrast of the shatteringly crunchy caramel coating and the chewy dulce-de-leche flavored taffy inside make this such a uniquely delicious treat. Our nanny is Brazilian and loved these. She said they were amazing and when I offered her 1 she ate 3 of them.
Ingredients
Filling
1 can (1 ¼ cups) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ Tbsp salted butter
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Caramel coating
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water
1 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
Melt the butter in the condensed milk over medium heat.
Stir in the shredded coconut and continue cooking until it becomes thick like a dough. Stir frequently. This takes a while, like 10 minutes or so.
When it’s firmed up, put the candy dough into a bowl and refrigerate or freeze for 30 minutes.
When it’s cold enough to form into cookie-dough-like balls, take a 1 tsp or ½ Tbsp and form evenly sized balls with your hands. Stick a toothpick into each ball so it’ll be ready to dip. You can put the tray back into the freezer or fridge while you make the caramel.
For the caramel, put the sugar, water, and lemon juice into a saucepan and make sure it’s evenly distributed before heating. Once you turn the heat on, you don’t want to stir at all. Stirring caramel encourages crystallization which turns it grainy instead of smoothly and evenly melted
Heat the sugar mixture over medium to medium-high heat until the mixture begins to simmer and turns a golden amber color. You can lower it to low-medium to prevent burning. This took me over 10 minutes (and one failed attempt) to get the caramel to the right texture.
Test it by dropping a little bit of caramel into cold water. It should have a glass-like texture that shatters easily when you touch or chew it. It should not be chewy/sticky/thick/bendy.
Once it’s ready, work quickly! Dip each ball of candy filling into the caramel and put it on parchment paper afterward to cool. It only takes 1-2 minutes for the caramel to solidify on the balls.
Enjoy! They are quite addicting and the texture is so unique. Not like anything I’ve bought in a store. It’s so fun to have the contrast of the shatteringly delicate glassy caramel candy with the chewy creamy dulce-de-leche flavored bon bon.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
