Delicious Christmas Bebinca Recipe

Creamy Traditional Goan Bebik Recipe

This popular Goan layered dessert is amazingly tasty and traditionally made at Christmas time. I have step-by-step instructions for you on how to make the Queen of Goan Desserts at home, the most fabulous of Goan Christmas sweets. This soft, multi-layered dessert has a melt-in-the mouth taste and is a heavenly delicacy. You just need the patience to make it, though basically, it involves just a few steps, and these are not that difficult at all. Also called bibik or bebik, this is a delicious Goan-Portuguese pudding.

And with Christmas fast approaching, you might like to check out my super moist last minute Christmas cake recipe, as also my recipe for tasty Goan bolinhas.

Ingredients

Bigger bebinca

8 egg yolks

320g (1 ½ cups) sugar, powdered

3 ½ cups (840ml) coconut milk

(Extracted from 2 ¾ cups fresh grated coconut)

150g (1 ¼ cups) maida, sifted

Approx. 6 to 7 tbsp melted butter or ghee

¾ tsp grated nutmeg

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 pinches of salt

For caramel

¼ cup sugar

4 tbsp water

(Around 60ml/4 tbsp caramel syrup)

Approx batter volume 5 ½ cups (1350 ml)

10 layers (each layer 130ml, that is, 2 ladlefuls + 1 tbsp)

7×7 inches square pan (or 8-inch round pan) – capacity / volume is almost 6 cups

For smaller 6″ round pan

5 egg yolks

210g (1 cup) sugar, powdered

100g (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) flour

2 ½ cups (600ml) coconut milk

(Extracted from 2 cups fresh grated coconut)

Approx. ¼ cup melted butter or ghee

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp vanilla extract

A pinch of salt

Light green colour for the lighter layer (optional)

For caramel

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp water

(Approx 45ml/3 tbsp caramel syrup)

Approx. batter volume 3 ¼ cups

For 8 layers, each layer 98 ml (½ cup minus 1 tbsp)

6″ round pan capacity / volume  (almost 3 ½ cup)

Procedure

(For larger bebinca)

1. Prepare the caramel. Heat the sugar in a pan/pot on medium heat without disturbing it till it starts melting. Once it melts completely, swirl the pan and let the sugar caramelise till it becomes dark brown in colour. (Don’t let it get burnt.) Carefully pour in the water. Stir everything and bring the caramel to a boil. Let it boil for a minute and then turn off the heat. Let it cool completely. (Around ¼ cup in volume)
2. Extract coconut milk by grinding the grated fresh coconut in a mixer grinder with a little water. You could also use canned coconut milk, or reconstituted coconut milk made from coconut milk powder.
3. Sift the flour.
4. Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks. (The whites can be used to make egg white omelettes or scrambled eggs or some other dish.)
5. Whisk the egg yolks with a whisk or electric beater. Add in the powdered sugar, and beat well till the mixture is creamy and pale yellow in colour.
6. Mix in a little coconut milk, followed by around ⅓ of the flour. Repeat this twice more, till you have a smooth batter free from lumps. Then add in the rest of the coconut milk and stir the batter well.
7. Measure the volume of the batter. Mine turned out to be around 5 ½ cups (1350 ml) in volume.
8. Now to our batter, let’s add around ½ tsp of the grated nutmeg, reserving around ¼ tsp to add later, and 2 pinches of salt.
9. Let’s give the batter a stir, and then divide it equally into 2 vessels. I had to add 2 ¾ cups to each one.
10. Next, we’ll have to add the caramel syrup we made, that measures around 4 tbsp, to the batter in the first vessel to give it a brown colour. As a result, the volume of the batter in this bowl will increase slightly. But that won’t affect the striped pattern of the bebinca too much. however, if you want to have around the same volume of batter in each, then, before adding in the caramel syrup, remove around 2 tbsp of the batter from the first vessel and add it to the other one. This is an optional step. After that, stir the caramel syrup into the first vessel. Next, into the second vessel that has the lighter-coloured batter, we’ll add in the rest of the grated nutmeg, and into the first vessel with the darker-coloured batter, we’ll stir in ½ a tsp of vanilla extract…….
11. Now that we have both our batters ready, it’s time to start pre-heating the oven to 180C (360F). Both the upper and lower heating elements have to be turned on.
12. In the meanwhile, grease the inside of the baking pan liberally with melted butter or ghee and line the bottom with parchment paper. Apply a thin layer of melted butter or ghee on the top of the parchment paper as well.
13. Then, carefully pour around 1/10^th of the batter (130ml in my case) of the darker batter into the pan so that it covers the entire base. This will be our first layer. Preferably, place the pan in a baking tray before moving it to the oven. This will help prevent the bottommost layer from getting burnt as you proceed with baking the other layers.
14. Bake this for around 15 minutes with both heaters turned on till its surface is firm and does not stick to your fingers. Let it cool for around a minute and then brush around 1 -2 tsp of melted ghee liberally over the top surface.
15. Now turn off the lower heating element of the oven. From the second layer onwards, all the layers will be baked with just the top element on.
16. Carefully pour a layer of the lighter batter to the pan so that it covers the entire base. Bake this for around 10 minutes till the top of this layer is firm and non-sticky.
17. Let this second layer cool for a minute and then after brushing the top with melted ghee, pour a layer of the darker batter on it. And bake it exactly as you baked the second layer.
18. Proceed with baking the rest of the layers alternately adding the light and dark batters to the pan. For the last layer you’ll have to add the lighter-coloured batter. After this has baked, brush the top with melted ghee.
19. Now let the bebinca cool in the pan for around 10 hours or overnight.
20. Warm the bottom of the pan over the stove top carefully to help release the bebinca from the pan.
21. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to release the sides of the bebinca.
22. Place a plate on top of the pan and upturn it to unmould the bebinca.
23. Cut it into slices and you’ll see its beautiful striped pattern.

Enjoy!

Just to show you something different, and make a bebinca that’s more Christmassy, I made the smaller bebinca with light green food colour added to the lighter batter.

So pick which version you like. But do try out my bebinca recipe this Christmas. I guarantee you’ll love its soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture and superb taste.