damn coconut ice.. someone help me - PUHLEASE!

So we had a cake stall for the Fire & Rescue squad today, so of course yesterday i spent the day cooking/baking like a crazy woman...

comes to the coconut ice... now, i have to admit that i have never made it before, but i am pretty nifty in the kitchen & havent really come across anything that i 'cant' do, but i have now found something.... LOL

I need some experts to help me nut out what i am doing wrong....

The first batch i made, as soon as i added the coconut, it was like it set & jusst looked like coconut - bread crumbish, IYKWIM... there was NO pushing it into the tin to set... so i threw it out & started again. I thought maybe i overcooked at the 'candy' stage?

The second lot turned out gluggy & i could pour it into the pan & didnt set - so i threw it out very cranky.. haha.. i am not one to let something beat me.

What did i do wrong, or whose got a failsafe receipie?

surely some clever huggies mummy makes it blink

I have made it twice - the last time was about 5yrs ago.

I can't remember what's in it, how you make it or why mine turned out okay - so I'm really no help sorry.

bumping for the sunday morning crowd tongue

Are you testing the "candy stage" to make sure it is? You drop a bit of the mix into cold water, and you should be able to roll it into a ball. It's called "soft ball" stage too.

Not sure what recipe you used, but did you make sure that you let it sit for about 10 minutes after you added coconut, then beat the mixture til it thickens?

It might be all in the boiling of your sugar mix..

I cheat and don't bother with the whole candy thermometre faff. In fact I use a no-cook recipe and it doesn't fail, and you can't tell the difference:

150 ml sweetened condensed milk
250 g icing sugar, sieved
175 g desiccated coconut
2 -5 drops red food coloring or 2 -5 drops pink food coloring

Directions:
Using extra icing sugar, dust a square pan (pan size will determine thickness).
Mix the condensed milk, icing sugar and coconut together in a large bowl until it's fully mixed and stiff.
Divide in half and tint one half of the mixture pink with the food colouring.
Press one mixture into the pan gently then top and press with the other mixture.
Leave to set then cut into cubes or fingers with an oiled knife.
To store: wrap or layer with waxed or greaseproof paper and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy

That must be the one I've made Clax, because I couldn't for the life of me remember a "candy stage" - I thought I might have been thinking of something else grin