Bolis de Coco Yucatecos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Box grater for the coconut
• •Heavy small saucepan for steeping the milk
• •High-powered blender
• •Long narrow plastic boli bags, about 2 inches by 9 inches
• •Tall drinking glass to hold the bag open while filling
• •Sheet pan for the freezer

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the coconut

   If you are using a fresh mature coconut, drain the water, crack the shell, and pry out the meat. Peel off the brown skin with a paring knife and grate the white flesh on the medium holes of a box grater. You want about two cups. Fresh coconut is what they use in Mérida and on the playa at Progreso. If you cannot find one, unsweetened shredded coconut from the market is the honest substitute. Sweetened bagged coconut is not. The sugar is already there in the condensed milk.

   Save the coconut water from the fresh coconut and drink it cold while you work. That is how the señoras in Yucatán do it.
2. 2

   Steep the milk base

   In a heavy saucepan, combine the whole milk, the cinnamon stick, the strip of lime zest, and the salt. Warm over medium-low heat until the milk is just under a simmer, when small bubbles trace the edge of the pan. Do not let it boil. Pull it off the heat and let the cinnamon and lime steep for ten minutes. The lime zest is the Yucatecan touch. It cuts the richness of three milks and the coconut and keeps the boli from tasting cloying.

3. 3

   Build the cremita

   Fish out the cinnamon stick and the lime zest and discard them. Pour the warm milk into a blender. Add the coconut milk, the evaporated milk, the sweetened condensed milk, the grated coconut, and the vanilla. Blend on high for one full minute until the mixture is smooth and the coconut is broken down into fine flecks. You want body and creaminess, not whole shreds floating around. This is cremita de coco, not a chunky pudding.

4. 4

   Taste before you freeze

   Taste the base while it is still liquid. It should be sweet but not sugary, with the coconut clearly present and a faint perfume of cinnamon and lime behind it. Cold dulls sweetness, so if it tastes only mildly sweet now, it will taste flat frozen. Adjust with a tablespoon more condensed milk if it needs more body, or a pinch of salt if it tastes one-note. Trust your tongue. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

5. 5

   Fill the bags

   Set a boli bag inside a tall glass to hold it open. Pour or ladle the cremita into the bag until it is about three-quarters full. Leave room at the top for the liquid to expand as it freezes. Press the air out, then tie the top tightly with a double knot. The knot has to be tight. A loose boli leaks in the freezer and again in your hand. Repeat with the rest of the bags.

   If you are using zip-top bags instead of boli bags, lay them flat in the freezer the first hour so they freeze in a manageable shape. Round bolis are harder to bite from the corner.
6. 6

   Freeze hard

   Lay the filled bolis flat on a sheet pan and freeze for at least eight hours, ideally overnight. They have to be frozen solid through the center. A half-frozen boli is a sad thing on a hot day. Once they are hard, you can pile them into a freezer bag for storage. They keep for up to two months.

7. 7

   Eat them the right way

   Take a boli out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for two or three minutes so the edge softens slightly. Bite a corner of the bag off with your teeth, the way every child in Mérida and Campeche learns to do it, and squeeze the cremita up into your mouth as it melts. This is how they are eaten on the way home from the playa, walking barefoot on hot pavement. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh coconut is not a snobbish preference. It is the difference between a boli that tastes like the Peninsula and one that tastes like a coconut candle. If you are in a city with a Caribbean or Mexican market, ask for a coco maduro and crack it yourself. It is a fifteen-minute job and the flavor is not comparable.
• •Use canela de Ceylán, the soft, papery cinnamon sold in Mexican markets, not the hard cassia bark sold in most supermarkets. Cassia is too aggressive for this dish and will steamroll the coconut. If your cinnamon snaps with a sharp crack instead of crumbling, it is the wrong cinnamon.
• •Long narrow boli bags are sold in Mexican mercados and online, usually labeled bolsas para bolis or bolsas tubulares. They are cheap. Buy a hundred. You will make these again the next time the weather turns hot, and so will everyone who tastes the first batch.
• •If you want to layer the boli with chunks of mango, fresh pineapple, or a swirl of dulce de leche, that is what the señoras in Campeche do for the kids who want something fancy. A spoonful of fruit in the bag before you pour the cremita is enough. Do not overcomplicate the base. Coconut is the star.

Advance Preparation

• •Bolis are by definition make-ahead. They need a minimum of eight hours in the freezer and are better at twelve. Plan a day ahead.
• •Once frozen solid, bolis keep in a sealed freezer bag for up to two months without losing texture. After that the coconut fat starts to separate and the cremita turns icy.
• •The cremita base, before freezing, can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Blend it again briefly before filling the bags to redistribute the coconut.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 127g)