The Best Carioca Recipe You’ll Make (Addicting Sauce)
While the Philippines has many great desserts, carioca is my favorite and pretty underrated.
Carioca has different names & variations throughout the Philippines like cascaron, tungi-tungi in Kapampangan, bitsu-bitsu in Bisaya, and tinudok in Ilocano.
Though not all carioca hit the spot — sometimes they turn out a bit bland and too soft on the outside.
Here’s my easy carioca recipe with the best sauce you’ll make, plus tips for getting the perfect chewy texture.
Ingredients in Carioca Recipe
Carioca are deep-fried glutinous sweet rice balls coated in a brown sugar and coconut milk glaze, then skewered on a BBQ stick.
This carioca recipe includes glutinous rice flour (I usually use Mochiko brand), coconut milk, and coconut shreds.
Some carioca desserts don’t use coconut shreds, but I find adding coconut adds more flavor and sweetness.
For this carioca recipe, I add gula melaka palm sugar to the sauce for a richer caramel flavor, similar to the Kapampangan bibikang nasi recipe.
I highly recommend using gula melaka palm sugar in general, which is available at most Asian grocery markets.
I’ve tried different carioca, and this is the best carioca that I’ve tried so far!
I make it at family parties, and it’s always a hit.
Hands down a must-make recipe. If anything, make the carioca sauce. 100% addicting.
Language Learning Bits
- Gata = coconut milk
- Gula Melaka = palm sugar (gula is sugar in Malay and Indonesian langauges)
The Best Carioca Recipe You’ll Make
Ingredients
Carioca balls
- 1 pack frozen grated coconut (3 cups) Note: You can use dried, but make sure it’s either unsweetened or use less sugar
- 1.5 cup white sugar
- 2.5 cups mochiko sweet rice flour
- 1 cup coconut milk
Sauce coating
- 3 cups coconut milk
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 3/4 cup gula melaka sugar (can sub for more brown sugar if you don’t have gula melaka)
Optional
- BBQ skewers
Instructions
How to Make Carioca Dessert
Balls:
- Thaw the frozen coconut shreds, and pat down dry.
- In a bowl, combine the coconut shreds, white sugar, sweet rice flour, and coconut milk.
- Take two tablespoons of the mixture and roll into a ball. Repeat for all carioca balls.
- Heat up a small pot with frying oil on low-medium heat.
- Test fry one carioka ball for 2-4 minutes, or until outside is lightly-browned. Cut open. The inside should be throughly cooked and bouncy.
- Fry the remaining carioka balls and set aside on a napkin-lined plate.
Sauce:
- In a wide saucepan on medium heat, add coconut milk and brown sugar. If you have gula melaka sugar, add a 3/4 cup or to your liking, or add more brown sugar.
- Mix and stir until sauce thickens, around 10-15 minutes.
Prepare:
- Add the fried carioca balls to the saucepan and evenly coat each ball.
- Take three to four carioca balls and add to BBQ skewer. Enjoy!
Notes
- If your test ball isn’t thoroughly cooked, pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds, re-roll, then fry.
- If you don’t have BBQ skewers, you can definitely eat the karioka balls separately.
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