If you have cholesterol issues skip this recipe. I made an almond, cherry and coconut flavored cake the other day with a recipe that called for egg whites only. Eight of them! Then I was stuck with 8 egg yolks. My first thought was to just discard them, but I hate being wasteful. Then I decided to make this decadently luscious Brazilian sweet that’s very popular throughout the country.

Brazilian quindim

Basically quindim is a mix of egg yolk, sugar and coconut baked in the oven that turns into a custard-like crust-less pie. You can bake them in individual small trays or do as I did and make one medium sized cake. I used fresh coconut which tastes better.

It’s delicious, and sweet but never too sweet: just the way I like it!

Brazilian quindim

8 egg yolks passed through a strainer
½ cup sugar plus some
2 cups freshly grated coconut (or dried)
1 cup of water
1 tbsp butter plus more for greasing the pan

fresh coconut is best though a bit more work

To prepare the coconut:

Using a cork screw puncture two holes through the soft ‘eyes’ that the coconut has at one of its ends. Drain the coconut water. Drink it right away or refrigerate to enjoy it cold later. It’s a delicacy that’s uncommon in the States!

Crack the coconut shell open with the help of a hammer or heavy cleaver. To detach the meat from the shell, insert a knife between the shell and the flesh to loosen all the edges until the meat pops out. Cut off brown skin layer around the meat. Rinse to remove any impurities. Place coconut in food processor and spin to grate it. Freeze any leftovers.

To prepare quindim:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Grease baking dish with butter then sprinkle sugar all over it and set aside.

Meanwhile bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves and forms a medium thickness syrup. Add butter and remove from heat. Let cool.

Mix in coconut and egg yolks until incorporated. Transfer to baking pan. Bake for about 60-70 minutes in bain-marie.

What is bain-marie? That’s when you place a dish for baking in another larger one full of water. This lets you cook the food at a constant temperature, using the water as a conductor. To do this, place the quindim tray in a larger tray in the oven. Fill the larger tray with about ¾ of the way with hot water, keeping it out of the quindim dish. And there it is: an improvised bain-marie device.