Bolinhos de Coco – Coconut Cookies Recipes

Bolinhos de coco or Bolinhas ( cookies in portuguese) is a very popular cookie for evening tea time in Goa. They are also popular during christmas. Since cream of wheat /rava is used to make them, they have a nice crunch and can also be tricky if not made right. The cookies can be hard to bite. In India cream of wheat is used to make multiple sweets/ desserts, Baath / Batica (cake), Sheera / Xiro , Neureos ( deep-fried coconut stuffed sweet dumplings).

As I was researching the recipe I found that some used white flour in the batter and some cooked the batter slightly before baking the cookies.  My recipe does not use flour but I did roast the cream of wheat/rava for a couple of minutes on medium heat to remove the rawness. My mom always did it and it gives a nice toasted smell. I also soaked the batter for 5 hours to soften the rava  before I baked the bolinhos and added a little extra baking powder to make it light instead of the cookies being dense. Since I used frozen grated coconut I replaced the water with coconut milk. In my opinion the frozen grated coconut found in the US is squeezed out of the first milk and so has no taste.

Serving size: 20 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups of toasted cream of wheat / rava/ sooji

2 cups grated coconut

1.25 cup of sugar

3 tbsp of butter

2 beaten eggs

1/2 cup water or coconut milk

1 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

2-3 pinches of salt

Directions:

In a pan heat sugar, frozen coconut, salt, butter and water / coconut milk till all the sugar melts. Take off heat and mix in the cream of wheat / rava and let stand for 4 to 6 hours.

Heat oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet or line a cookie pan.

Next add the 2 beaten eggs and baking powder and mix well.  Shape into cookies and bake for  25-30 minutes till light golden brown.