Complete Guide to Making Coconut Jam for Tet
This Tet, you can confidently treat your family and friends to a plate of soft, fragrant, and beautifully colored coconut jam after following the method shared by Cookbeo in the article below. You’ll be thrilled with your success on the very first try.
Ingredients
- 1 coconut ~ 500g
- 250g white sugar
- Sea salt
- 1-2 lemons
- 1 tube vanilla
Ingredient Notes
To make delicious coconut jam, you should choose young or medium-mature coconuts. Old coconuts make the jam hard and dry, lacking the creamy texture of the younger varieties. Medium-mature coconuts offer a balanced firmness and sweetness, making them ideal for jam. Meanwhile, young coconut jam is soft, rich, and melt-in-the-mouth.
If you want to make colorful coconut jam, you can use food coloring (the type used for baking) or create natural colors from ingredients. For example, yellow can be made from gardenia powder, soaked saffron, or carrot juice. Purple can be achieved by soaking butterfly pea flowers or purple yam leaves, green from pandan leaf juice or matcha powder, and red or pink from beetroot juice...
Besides vanilla, you can also use pomelo flower essence or unsweetened milk to enhance the fragrance and flavor of the coconut jam.
Instructions
Prepare the Coconut
Peel off the tough brown outer layer of the coconut meat, rinse, and then slice it into strips about 0.2 - 0.3 cm thick. You can also cut the coconut into squares, rectangles, or triangles, as long as the thickness is consistent. If the pieces are too thick, they won't dry properly during cooking, leaving the jam moist inside.
After slicing the coconut, soak it in a bowl of diluted salt water to remove the sap. Then rinse it several times with water to remove the oil. Coconut contains a lot of oil, and if not thoroughly washed, the jam can easily burn or turn yellow during cooking.
Boil a pot of water and squeeze in the juice of 1-2 lemons (depending on the amount of coconut). The lemon juice helps the coconut retain its white color and makes it more tender. Once the water is boiling, blanch the coconut for 2 minutes over medium heat. Then remove the coconut and rinse it several times with water. Repeat the blanching process with fresh water a second time. Blanching the coconut reduces its oil content. You can blanch it a third or fourth time if a lot of oil is still being released.
After blanching, rinse the coconut thoroughly until the water is clear and there's no oily residue. Drain the coconut strips well.
Marinate with Sugar
Once the coconut is drained, place it in a bowl and marinate it with sugar. When making coconut jam or other types of jams, use a ratio of 1 part ingredient to 1/2 part sugar, or even more sugar. Using less than this ratio will result in jam that is sticky and won't dry properly, no matter how long you cook it.
If making colored coconut jam, mix the color with a little water (adjust the intensity to your liking), then add the coconut and sugar. Gently mix to evenly coat the coconut strips with color.
The marinating time should be at least 2-3 hours. The coconut absorbs the sugar, making the jam deliciously sweet and aromatic from the inside out. Occasionally, you can gently stir to help the sugar dissolve faster.
Cook the Coconut Jam
Cooking coconut jam requires patience and careful control of the heat. Add the sugar-soaked coconut mixture to a pan and heat over medium-low heat. For example, if your stove has 8 levels, set it to level 3.
At first, let the mixture simmer gently without stirring to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing. When the syrup has reduced by half, lower the heat by one level. Gently stir until the mixture thickens and becomes sticky. Lower the heat to the lowest setting and add vanilla, pomelo flower essence, or milk.
If using milk, add 100ml of milk for every 250g-300g of coconut.
When the coconut strips have dried and separated, turn off the heat but continue stirring for another 5-10 minutes to ensure the jam is completely dry. The cooking time is about 30 minutes on average.
If making multi-colored coconut jam, cook the lighter colors first (white, yellow), followed by the darker colors (purple, red, pink, green...).
Tips & Notes
Some tips for making coconut jam:
- If making a large batch of coconut jam, it's best to cook it in smaller portions to ensure even drying.
- When cooking the jam, be patient and cook it over medium-low to low heat. Avoid turning the heat too high, as this will cause the jam to yellow and burn. During the final stage of cooking, stir constantly to ensure the sugar coats the coconut evenly. If left unstirred, the sugar may burn.
- After cooking, while the jam is still hot, wear food-safe gloves and gently squeeze to remove any excess sugar clumps from the coconut. This step also helps the sugar coat the coconut evenly, making the jam look more appealing.
- If some pieces of coconut jam appear slightly moist while others have dried, don't worry. These pieces may not have been spread out flat and remain folded, or they may have been cut too thick. Simply spread them out or cut them smaller, then continue cooking.
- To ensure the coconut jam is dry and doesn’t become sticky, let it dry in the sun for 2-3 hours. If there's no sun, bake it in an oven or air fryer at 100°C for 20-25 minutes, keeping the door slightly open to allow moisture to escape. Alternatively, you can return the jam to the pan and cook over the lowest heat for another 15-20 minutes.
