Mid-century sources often spell it cocoanut and they mean the dried often sweetened shredded or flaked form not the fresh whole fruit we can get now. From my research coconut was part of the “tropics craze” that brought exotic fruit like canned pineapple to grocery shelves and home pantries in the mid-century.
In my growing collection of mid-century cookbooks one of the recurring recipes is a confection of a dessert called something like “Snowball Cake”. It usually had pride of place in the colour page(s) of the book. Basically you just ice the cake with a thick coat of frosting and then press coconut into the frosting. A crowd pleaser, I bet.
It is important to know that a few forms of coconut were available to the mid-century baker. It was flaked and shredded. It is more common to find shredded in the baking aisle today. Flakes are wider strips and tend to be chewier and I think are best for a power snack than for baking. The shredding coconut could be sweetened or unsweetened. It could be toasted or raw. It could also be coloured or flavoured. There were all kinds of ways to fancy up coconut.
I have picked out a few recipes that showcase coconut that are typical of the 1950’s. The first is for lemon flavoured coconut.
Lemon Flavoured Coconut
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup frozen concentrated lemonade defrosted
lemon zest
yellow food colouring
Directions:
Add lemonade, zest and food colouring to coconut in a covered container. Shake to coat the coconut thoroughly. Drain the coconut on waxed paper or paper towel for a day.
This would make a very festive topping for cakes, bars or cookies. I could see red or green coconut for Christmas desserts. It would really show up on a bake sale table. I bet orange or berry flavours would be good too.
Coconut Filling or Frosting
Ingredients:
6 oz evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 slightly beaten egg
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 c shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans or other nuts
Directions:
Combine milk, sugar, butter, egg and salt in a saucepan and heat on medium until it begins to thickens and begins to boil. Let boil for 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla and coconut and nuts. Cool before frosting the cake.
There are many versions of this frosting including a recipe that calls for the cake to be put in the oven to broil for a few minutes after being iced to make it a golden brown.
A very cutsey recipe is called Marshmallow Nut Puffs. You take a marshmallow and dip it in warm cream and vanilla mixture to get the outside melted. Then roll the marshmallow in a mixture of chopped nuts, chocolate chunks and coconut. Flatten the marshmallow slightly and let cool on wax paper. It just seems so mid-century!
There are many, many recipes that call for rolling cookie dough of various descriptions in coconut before baking. Fudge with coconut inside or outside or both is also a popular recipe.
The following recipe for Coconut Macaroons looks like it takes some care but no doubt is delicious. You will need a stand mixer or maybe a vintage ” mix master” for this one.
Coconut Macaroons:
Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut
Directions:
Beat egg whites with a dash of salt and vanilla until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in the coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes.
In the spirit of the modern mid-century housewife trying to save time in getting dinner on the table for her family, this is a quick and easy recipe for a coconut dessert.
Coconut Cake Bars
Ingredients:
store bought or left over cake
honey
butter
sweetened shredded coconut
Directions:
Cut cake into slices and each slice into thirds or fourths. spread the cake pieces on three sides with the butter and honey. Roll the cake pieces in coconut. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake in oven at 375 degrees F for 5-10 minutes until just browned.
This recipe could be nice with butter and jam instead of honey, I think. I like how they assume you just have cake sitting around the house. I don’t know about your house but cake never last long enough at our house to be left over.
Another classic and quick recipe is what my mom called chocolate macaroons. I have learned that there are many recipes called macaroons and they often have very little in common with each other.
Chocolate Macaroons
Ingredients:
2 cups chocolate chips (milk, dark or a mixture perhaps with butterscotch and white chocolate)
2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
In a double boiler melt the chocolate, add vanilla and coconut. (You can use the microwave today) Mix well. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper on cookie sheet. Refrigerate to set to firm before removing them.
Coconut Cookies are a recipe that frequently shows up in vintage cookbooks. This is a 1968 recipe.
Coconut Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg beaten
1 tsp almond extract or vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup coconut finely chopped
Directions:
Cream butter with sugar. Add egg and almond extract. Then gradually add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add coconut last. Roll the dough into one inch balls, place on greased cookie sheet and press down with a fork. Bake at 300 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.
Two final categories of coconut recipes frequently found in vintage cookbooks are coconut pudding or coconut cream pie and coconut jellied salad or coconut fruit salad. The coconut pudding turns out to be plain old vanilla pudding with coconut added in and as topping over the whipped cream or meringue as well. The jellied coconut salad is fruit cocktail and coconut in a jello mould. The coconut fruit salad is essentially the 5 cup salad recipe I shared in the pineapple post. Here it is again:
Five Cup Salad
Ingredients:
1 cup of dried coconut
1 cup mandarin orange pieces
1 cup pineapple tidbits drained
1 cup sour cream
Directions:
Combine, stir well and refrigerate for several hours. You might put whipped cream and coconut on top. And of course mini marshmallows look great on top too.
There were very few truly vintage savoury coconut recipes. Coconut milk can be found in soup recipes today but not so much mid-century. I did find one recipe that called for pouring boiling water over coconut to use I think in place of coconut milk. We eat coconut shrimp and coconut rice today but neither featured in my vintage cookbooks. Maybe I will find something crazy the coconut and spam in a magazine one day. I will be sure to share it with you.
I hope you enjoyed the coconutty tour of vintage recipes. I learned a lot about how coconut was used in baking. As a mid-century housewife coconut was something you probably had sitting in your pantry it was an exotic item to bake with.
