Quindim
Encyclopedia
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian baked dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
, made chiefly from sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, egg yolk
Egg yolk
An egg yolk is a part of an egg which feeds the developing embryo. The egg yolk is suspended in the egg white by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae...
s, and ground coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
. It is a custard
Custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...
and usually presented as an upturned cup with a glistening surface and intensely yellow color.
Quindim is also a rhinoceros
Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....
character (named after the dessert) featured in Monteiro Lobato
Monteiro Lobato
José Bento Renato Monteiro Lobato was one of Brazil's most influential writers, mostly for his children's books set in the fictional Sítio do Picapau Amarelo but he had been previously a prolific writer of fiction, a translator and an art critic...
's children's book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s.
Ingredients and preparation
A typical recipe would call for 250 - 500 gGram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
of sugar, 10 to 20 egg yolks, and 100 to 250 g of ground coconut. Butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
(up to 200 g) is a common addition. Some recipes add other ingredients, such as 2–3 egg white
Egg white
Egg white is the common name for the clear liquid contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms around either fertilized or unfertilized egg yolks...
s, a , 100 ml of milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
, coconut milk
Coconut milk
Coconut milk is the water that comes from the grated meat of a coconut. The colour and rich taste of the milk can be attributed to the high oil content. In many parts of the world, the term coconut milk is also used to refer to coconut water, the naturally occurring liquid found inside the hollow...
, or water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
, a dash of salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, or a teaspoon
Teaspoon
A teaspoon, an item of cutlery, is a small spoon, commonly part of a silverware place setting, suitable for stirring and sipping the contents of a cup of tea or coffee...
of vanilla
Vanilla
Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...
extract.
In the simplest recipes, the ingredients are blended together with a spatula or wooden spoon. If butter is used, it should be melted and combined with the sugar first, and this mixture then combined with the yolks, coconut, and other ingredients. Some recipes say to prepare a hot syrup
Syrup
In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...
with sugar and water, to which are added the melted butter and other ingredients. Others recommend allowing the mixture to stand in the refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
overnight before baking.
In any case, the mixture is poured into a greased cupcake pan, placed into another baking pan with 1–2 cm of water, and baked at 150–180 C
Celsius
Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
or 350ºF until a golden brown crust forms and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The quindims should be left to cool in the pan, then removed while still warm by upturning the mold and gently prying them out. When served, the crust becomes the bottom. The top should be a rich translucent yellow custard-like substance.
The mixture can also be made in a large ring mold (like a Savarin mold) in which case it is called a "quindão" and served in slices.
Origins
The heavy use of egg yolks is characteristic of many PortuguesePortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
sweets and pastries, such as the papo de anjo ("angel's double chin") and fios de ovos
Fios de ovos
Angel hair, called in Portuguese fios de ovos is a traditional Portuguese sweet food made of eggs , drawn into thin strands and boiled in sugar syrup...
("egg threads"). Their combination with coconut and sugar was probably created by Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n slaves in 17th century Brazilian Northeast, where coconuts were abundant and sugar (from sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
) was a major industry.
The word itself comes from a Bantu language
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, and originally meant "the gestures, or demeanor, or humor characteristic of adolescent girls."
See also
- CocadaCocadaCocada is a traditional Brazilian sweet made mainly from coconut. It originates from Bahia state. The recipes may vary, but usually use yolks, coconut milk, condensed milk, fruit syrup and sugar...
- CustardCustardCustard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...
and flanFlanCrème caramel , flan , or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of soft caramel on top, as opposed to crème brûlée, which is custard with a hard caramel top... - Fios de ovosFios de ovosAngel hair, called in Portuguese fios de ovos is a traditional Portuguese sweet food made of eggs , drawn into thin strands and boiled in sugar syrup...
- Papo de anjo
- QueijadinhaQueijadinhaQueijadinha is a kind of sweet which originated in Portugal, and is common in Brazil. This candy was essentially improved during the colonial period in the farms of colonial Brazil and it was very influenced by the African slave culture...