Paçoquinha is a traditional Brazilian sweet, prepared in the olden days by crushing the ingredients in a mortar, the exact processes used by the indigenous. In fact, the word paçoca comes from the tupi (indigenous) word pa’soka, which means to crumble, crush in the mortar.
It is a very substantial and tasty candy – a Festas Juninas traditional recipe – widely consumed throughout the whole year.
In some places, such as the Vale do Paraíba, it is a traditional Easter dessert, and it is said the paçoquinha accompanied by sliced banana and a coffee is “the best thing to eat in the world”. You have also to try a crumbled paçoquinha over your cream ice-cream.
Ingredients
• 200 g roasted peeled peanuts
• 100 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon toasted manioc flour (5 g)
• a pinch of salt
Preparation method
- Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. The original recipe calls to crush the ingredients in a mortar.
- Turn on the blender at high speed for a few seconds, turn off, open the blender to check the granularity of the mixture and mix.
- Repeat the process until the mixture being so fine, starts to release oil and lumps are starting to form. Paçoca must falls apart – if you blend too long, the mixture will turn into peanut cream.
- Put the mixture into a round cookie cutter (diameter = 3 cm, h = 4 cm) and press down on the mixture with the tip of a pestle or with a cork stopper for a wine bottle, until the mixture becomes compact. Unmould using the pestle to help push paçoquinha through the cookie cutter.
- Store at room temperature.
Yield: 8 paçoquinhas.
Posted on: 28 March 2018
I’m an architect. I was born in Brazil and my father was Italian.