Traditional Sweets

Delight your palate with desserts of Yucatán

When eating in Yucatán, there is one very important moment that requires you to choose with your eyes and, of course, with your stomach: dessert. Whether it is a papaya candy, a plate of nance in syrup, a cocada or a pumpkin seed, there are always options to delight all tastes and palates.

The tradition of accompanying meals with dessert dates back to Mayan times. They took advantage of part of the harvest of the cornfield, such as sweet potato and pumpkin or seasonal fruits such as papaya, plum, sapote and cocoyol to prepare them as sweets to which they added honey. This happened on special dates, for some community or family celebration and we can still see it today, for example for the Day of the Dead (Hanal Pixán).

Papaya candy: a favorite

A traditional dessert that has become a favorite, but has managed to reinvent itself, is the sweet papaya. An excellent accompaniment to typical food, today it is served with a sprinkling of grated "bola" (Dutch) cheese on top. Choose it after enjoying a delicious poc chuc.

Sweets in syrup can also be found in markets, restaurants and supermarkets, practically throughout the year. Ask for them and try them. But if you are a gastronomy lover, go ahead and prepare them! The recipe remains the same: boil an infusion of water, cinnamon, sugar or honey until it thickens into a syrup and add the fruit of your choice. The best thing is that you can pack them and refrigerate them to enjoy them for several months.

We can talk about coconut and its varieties in cremita, cocada, tostadas and pie at another time. If you are at the beach you can't avoid a delicious sweet after eating a Yucatecan fried fish.

You can consider yourself almost Yucatecan if you have eaten one or more of the traditional sweets, either in syrup: papaya, cocoyol, plum, nance, currant, yucca and sweet potato; coconut, meringues, palanquetas and, of course, pumpkin seeds.

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