Mexican candy with nuts (photo by Gaby Maldonado courtesy of Flickr)

Really, you just can’t go wrong when you bring milk, sugar and nuts together. A delectable food-of-the-gods is created. Across all cultures of the world, these ingredients are used in some form to make a dessert. Throughout Mexico, the ingredients are used to create these special, quite pretty, candies.

The candies above are a type of Praline. A milk and sugar syrup is mixed with seeds, nuts or coconut at just the right temperature creating an amazingly perfect candy. Sometimes the milk is omitted making a simple sugar syrup that can have flavors added, like vanilla or even chilli.

Candy stall (photo by Nathan Gibb courtesy of Flickr)

Another treat is a creamy candy which is known as Leche Cemada – burned milk. The sweet is made by cooking sugar and slowly adding milk to it, stirring constantly. Corn starch is then added as a thickening agent. This creates a creamy caramel-like substance that cools to a fudge-like consistency. The gooey stage is usually known as cajete and tastes fabulous drizzled over ice cream. The leche cemada tastes best when made with goat’s milk, but a mix of goat’s milk and cow’s milk is often used. The blocks are usually topped with nuts for decoration.

So many dulces (photo by Daniel Alvarez courtesy of Flickr)

Coconut is also a favorite for candy making and is often mixed with the before-mentioned creamy sugar mixture. The Banderitas de Coco are often seen during patriotic holidays. The coconut is simply painted with red and green to make candies that resemeble the Mexican flag.

Basket of goodies (photo by A30_Tsitika courtesy of Flickr)

Regardless of which part of Mexico your travels take you, there are sure to be some sort of local treats that will follow the basic cajete formula from above. Many added ingredients depend on the area and will usually utilize the nuts and seeds that are in season. Ask around to find out where to find some of these decadent treats.