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Type Custard
Course Dessert
Place of origin Brazil
Serving temperature Cold
Main ingredients Ground coconut, sugar, egg yolks
Cookbook: Quindim  Media: Quindim

Quindim (About this sound pronunciation ) is a popular Brazilian baked dessert, made chiefly from sugar, egg yolks, and ground coconut. It is a custard and usually presented as an upturned cup with a glistening surface and intensely yellow color. The mixture can also be made in a large ring mold (like a Savarin mold) in which case it is called a "quindão" and served in slices.

Quindim is also a rhinoceros character (named after the dessert) featured in Monteiro Lobato's children's books.


The heavy use of egg yolks is characteristic of many Portuguese sweets and pastries, such as the papo de anjo ("angel's double chin") and fios de ovos ("egg threads"). Their combination with coconut and sugar was probably created by African slaves in 17th century Brazilian Northeast, where coconuts were abundant and sugar (from sugarcane) was a major industry.

The word itself comes from a Bantu language, and originally meant "the gestures, or demeanor, or humor characteristic of adolescent girls."[1]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ John T. Schneider (1991). Dictionary of African Borrowings in Brazilian Portuguese. Buske Verlag. p. 254. 

External links[edit]