Coconut Rocks

Coconut Rocks or Pol Toffee is a sweet delight from neighbouring Sri Lanka.

It’s quite similar to Maldivian Huni Gulha (sweet coconut balls) as both are made from coconut and sugar. The former comes in squares that are flavoured with butter and vanilla while the latter instead has the flavours of pandan and rosewater.

Makes: 9 squares

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp. butter (for greasing the tray)
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• 2 cups grated coconut
• 1 tsp. butter
• 2/3 tsp. vanilla essence
• 2-3 drops food colouring

Instructions:

1. Take a 6 inch square tray and coat the inside bottom and sides with butter.
2. Add sugar and water to a pot and put it on the stove top. While stirring continuously, cook on medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add the coconut, butter, vanilla essence and food colouring and keep stirring until all the water evaporates. For us this took around 10 minutes. But do keep in mind that the cooking time could vary for different quantities.
4. Transfer the mixture to the buttered tray and smoothen it out using a spatula. In our experience it was very easy to smoothen it out and get a neat top when we rubbed a little bit of butter on the spatula.
5. Let it cool down completely. It’ll set and harden as it cools down. Ours took around 5 hours. Cut it into squares halfway through but wait until it’s completely cooled down to separate them.