Coconut ice

Coconut ice is a soft British sweet made from coconut, often in pink and white layers. For generations it was made at home.

What coconut ice is

Coconut ice is a British sweet made from grated desiccated coconut, or simply grated coconut, with condensed milk and sugar. It usually has a chewy, soft and slightly grainy texture, though some versions are harder. The old spelling was cocoanut ice.

Pink food colouring is sometimes added, often to half of the mixture. The coloured and uncoloured mixtures are layered on top of each other and the slab is cut into pieces, giving the familiar pink and white squares. Some modern recipes also add honey gelatine.

Why ice?

No one knows for sure where the ice in the name came from. It may simply come from the sweet's general appearance and colouring.

A homemade sweet

Coconut ice was traditionally made at home in Britain, using coconut and a boiled sugar syrup. Those early versions did not keep well: they sometimes dried out, went too grainy, or even fermented. Coconut ice today is usually made with condensed milk and sugar instead.

The coconut itself is the flesh of the coconut, grated and dried. Dried coconut flesh is known as copra, and coconut is used in sweets and desserts around the world.

Around the world

Coconut ice is also found in South Africa, parts of Australia and New Zealand. An Australian recipe used copha, a vegetable fat made from hydrogenated coconut oil. In the United States, a similar ready made sweet called Neapolitan Coconut is sold by Brach's and others, usually with a third layer flavoured with chocolate.

Coconut ice and its cousins

Coconut ice belongs to a family of soft, sugary British sweets made in slabs and cut into squares, like fudge and Scottish tablet: see fudge and Scottish tablet. Like sugar mice, it is a sweet many families have made in their own kitchens: see sugar mice.

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