Mapopo recipe

Zimbabwean papaya candy: fruit cooked down in sugar to hard-ball stage, rolled and dusted white.

3 hours and 40 minutesmedium7 ingredients

Ingredients

• 900 g papaya
• 400 g sugar
• 30 ml lime juice
• 1 lime zest
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 1 pinch salt
• 10 g butter

How to make Mapopo

1. Peel 900 g of ripe but firm papaya, scoop out the seeds and cut the flesh into thin squares of about 2 cm.
2. Put the papaya in a heavy saucepan with 400 g of sugar, 30 ml of lime juice, the zest of 1 lime, 1 teaspoon of dried mint and a pinch of salt.
3. Stir over low heat with a wooden spoon until the sugar has fully dissolved, about 10 minutes, then take the pan off the heat and let it stand 30 minutes so the fruit soaks up the syrup.
4. Return to medium heat and cook without stirring until a candy thermometer reads 121 to 130 °C, the hard-ball stage; below that the sweets will never set.
5. Pour onto a buttered tray or wax paper and let it cool until you can handle it, about 15 minutes.
6. Roll teaspoon-sized pieces into balls or short sticks with buttered hands.
7. Roll each piece in extra sugar until it looks snowy, then leave on wax paper to firm up for 2 hours.
8. Keep in a tin between layers of wax paper; the sweets soften if they sit in humid air.

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