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Small coconut mokary piled beside the baking pan, with one cake open to show its soft interior
CuisineMalagasy
Africa

Mokary au Coco: Malagasy Rice-Flour and Coconut Cakes

How to make mokary au coco, small round Malagasy cakes of rice flour, wheat flour and coconut milk. Covers the yeast batter and its 1 hour 30 minute rest, cooking in a multi-well pan, pan alternatives, and how it differs from mokary vary. The water and yeast amounts are openly explained estimates, and this formula has not been kitchen-tested.

Level: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Dissolve the yeast

Yeast being dissolved in a little lukewarm water and left to stand
The flour and coconut milk stay separate for now

Measure 1 tablespoon of the lukewarm water into a small cup, keeping the rest of the water for step 3. Stir in about 4 g yeast and leave for 10 minutes. If your yeast label gives a water temperature, follow it. Foam is a general sign that yeast is active.

STEP 22 / 6

Mix the first batter and let it rest

Rice flour, wheat flour, coconut milk and yeast mixture combined into a batter in a bowl
The eggs, sugar and butter wait until after the rest

In a large bowl, combine 250 g rice flour, 200 g wheat flour, 400 ml coconut milk and the yeast mixture. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour 30 minutes. Don't extend the rest, even if the batter has risen only a little.

STEP 33 / 6

Finish the batter

Eggs, sugar and melted butter being added to the rested batter
Stop adding water when the batter reaches crêpe-batter consistency

Add 2 eggs, 80 g sugar, 70 g melted butter and the grated coconut, if using. Mix, then add the remaining water a little at a time until the batter is like crêpe batter. Stop once you reach that consistency, even if water remains. If the batter is still thick after all the water has gone in, add a little more.

Don't taste the raw batter. Start cooking right away once the eggs are in.

STEP 44 / 6

Oil the hot pan and half-fill the wells

Batter being poured halfway up the wells of a pan
Leave clear room above the batter in each well

Heat the pan and brush the wells lightly with oil, taking care because the metal is hot. Pour batter into each well until about half full, leaving room for it to rise. Pans and burners vary, so cook just a few cakes first to find the right heat.

STEP 55 / 6

Turn when bubbles appear

Mokary with bubbles on the surface, ready to turn
Bubbles on top are the signal to turn

Watch the surface of the cakes. When bubbles appear, carefully turn each cake with a small spatula.

STEP 66 / 6

Brown the second side and serve warm

Mokary browned on both sides being lifted out of the pan
Golden on both sides and cooked to the center

Cook the second side for a few minutes, until golden. Make sure the cakes are cooked through to the center. If the center is still raw, lower the heat and cook longer. Lift the cakes onto a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, oiling the wells as needed. Serve warm.

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Ingredients

Ingredients

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Ingredients

Ingredient Amount Role
Rice flour (farine de riz) 250 g The main flour and the soft base of the cake
Wheat flour (farine de blé) 200 g Works with the rice flour to hold the cake together
Baker's yeast (levure boulangère) about 4 g (half an 8 g sachet) Leavens and lightens the batter
Eggs (œufs) 2 Added after the rest
Coconut milk (lait de coco) 40 cl (400 ml) The main liquid and the coconut flavor
Butter (beurre) 70 g, melted Added after the rest
Sugar (sucre) 80 g Gentle sweetness, added after the rest
Lukewarm water (eau) 1 glass (about 200 ml), to have ready 1 tablespoon for the yeast, the rest to loosen the batter. You may not need it all
Grated coconut (noix de coco râpée), optional 5 tablespoons Coconut texture
Oil as needed A thin coat for the pan, not mixed into the batter
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Mokary au Coco: Small Coconut Cakes for Breakfast and Snacks

What this batter should keep

Aim for the softness of rice flour, the scent of coconut milk, the lightness of a yeast batter, and the small round shape that comes from a multi-well pan.

Picture a plate of small round cakes, golden on both sides and still warm, next to a cup of coffee or tea. Moov.Mg presents mokary au coco as a breakfast or snack, and the Madagascar Destination culture portal describes mokary as a soft, slightly sweet coconut-milk cake eaten with coffee or tea.

This version uses rice flour, wheat flour, coconut milk, yeast, eggs, butter and sugar. The batter rests, loosens to the consistency of crêpe batter, and cooks in small greased wells. Moov.Mg's recipe is the base here. Three of its amounts could not be used as written, and the section below explains how we handled them.

Mokary and Mokary Vary: Two Different Batters

The name alone does not settle the recipe. You will see both "mokary" and "moukary", and the word covers more than one formula. This article is about the coconut version, mokary au coco, as published by Moov.Mg.

Mokary vary is a separate preparation. On the personal blog Another Adventure, a Peace Corps volunteer who lived in northern Madagascar glosses the term as northern dialect for rice bread or cake, and records a morning routine of a village coffee stand, mokary vary and neighborhood conversation. That is one person's account, and it doesn't describe the whole country. Its recipe has no coconut and uses an overnight ferment, so we have not mixed any of it into this one.

Mokary au coco (this recipe) Mokary vary (Another Adventure)
Coconut Coconut milk, with optional grated coconut None
Flour Rice flour and wheat flour Rice flour
Leavening and rest Yeast, 1 hour 30 minutes Yeast and baking powder, with a cooked rice-flour paste and an overnight ferment
Cooking Greased multi-well pan Small lidded pans over charcoal

How the Amounts Were Settled

This formula has not been kitchen-tested

We have not cooked this exact formula, in a mokary pan or otherwise. The yield, cooking times and doneness are not measured results, and the amounts below do not guarantee a particular outcome.

Moov.Mg's flour, egg, coconut milk, butter and sugar amounts are used as published. It also calls for "a glass" of water and half a sachet of yeast with no volume or weight, and lists grated coconut as optional with no amount. We filled those three gaps as editorial estimates from other sources:

Moov.Mg says We use Where it comes from Limits
1 glass of water 200 ml to have ready French-language kitchen conversions commonly take a glass as about 20 cl (Épicerie du Patrimoine, Jujube en cuisine, Les Commis) Not an official measure. Épicerie du Patrimoine lists mustard glasses at 150–200 ml and tumblers at 200–250 ml, and we can't tell which glass Moov.Mg meant
1/2 sachet of yeast About 4 g Half of Vahiné's 8 g sachet, which the maker rates for up to 500 g of flour Moov.Mg names no brand, and sachet weights vary by brand
Grated coconut, optional 5 tablespoons if used Recette malgache, a blog with the same flours, yeast, eggs, butter and sugar Moov.Mg gives no amount

Water. Moov.Mg says to use a little water for the yeast and to add a little more if the batter is thick. Treating the one glass as the total for both jobs is our interpretation. The final test is Moov.Mg's own: batter like crêpe batter, which may leave water in the glass. Taking one tablespoon for the yeast follows Vahiné's instruction of two tablespoons for an 8 g sachet, halved.

Liquid ratio. As a rough plausibility check only, counting coconut milk and water but not eggs, this formula comes to about 1.33 ml of liquid per gram of flour if all the water goes in. Other mokary formulas (ProduitsGasy, Graine de faim kely, Omafaim) fall between about 1.13 and 1.67. That doesn't prove the result. Versions of this formula vary too: Recette malgache lists 1/2 tasse of coconut milk and 1 1/2 tasses of water, which we did not adopt.

Yeast. About 4 g is roughly half the maximum rate Vahiné gives, and less than Graine de faim kely's 3 g for a much smaller batch (90 g rice flour, 60 g wheat flour) with the same 1 hour 30 minute rest. The cakes may rise modestly. We still keep the rest at 1 hour 30 minutes, because batter should not sit out at room temperature for long.

Details left open. Moov.Mg specifies homemade coconut milk. It doesn't give the type of wheat flour or sugar, whether the butter is salted, the size of the eggs, a water temperature, heat levels or exact cooking times per side.

Ingredients (Makes About 50 Small Cakes)

Rice flour, wheat flour, coconut milk, yeast, eggs, butter and sugar set out separately
Keep the two flours separate, and the grated coconut in its own small dish

The number of cakes changes with the size of your pan's wells, so treat about 50 as a rough guide.

Choosing and Swapping

  • Rice flour: Finely milled baking rice flour is the easiest to work with. Other rice flours differ in grind and may give a tighter texture, so don't treat them as equal.
  • Wheat flour: Soft cake flour is a sensible starting point. Don't replace all of it with rice flour as a standard swap, because the texture and structure would need retesting.
  • Coconut milk: Homemade is the starting point. Canned or carton coconut milk is a convenient swap, but choose unsweetened. Thickness and sweetness vary by product, so judge the batter by eye and don't expect an identical result.
  • Yeast: Weigh dry yeast rather than going by sachet, and follow the directions on your product.
  • Sugar: Ordinary white sugar is fine.

Equipment

  • Mokary pan, or a multi-well blini or paniyaram pan
  • Small cup for the yeast
  • Large mixing bowl and wooden spoon
  • Kitchen scale and measuring spoons
  • Spoon or small ladle for pouring
  • Small spatula or similar tool for turning
  • Brush for oiling the wells (handy but not essential)
  • Plate for the finished cakes

Fixing Problems in the Pan

These are home-cook adjustments rather than measured figures, so change one thing at a time and try a few cakes.

Problem Likely cause What to do
Batter overflows the wells Wells too full Fill only about halfway to leave room to rise
Outside browns before the center is done Heat too high Lower the heat, cook longer, and test a small number before continuing
Batter feels heavy or thick Not enough water Add the remaining water a little at a time. Consistency matters more than using the full 200 ml
Cakes rise only modestly The yeast amount is on the low side Expect this as a possibility and don't extend the rest
Cakes come out as flat pancakes Cooked in a flat pan Use a multi-well pan for the small round shape

Allergens, Safety and Leftovers

Allergens and food safety

This recipe contains wheat, eggs, milk (butter) and coconut. Never taste raw batter, and cook the cakes through to the center. Don't leave the batter or the cooked cakes at room temperature for long. Rest the batter for no more than 1 hour 30 minutes, and cook it right away once the eggs are in. Take care with the hot pan when oiling and turning.

Mokary is best eaten warm. For leftovers, use clean utensils and plates, divide the cakes into shallow containers, cool them quickly and keep them in a refrigerator at 10°C or below. Reheat thoroughly to 75°C or above. Throw away anything kept too long or that seems at all doubtful. We give no storage time in days and no freezing time, because the guidance we rely on has no figure specific to this dish.

Variations

  • No grated coconut: Leave it out for a smoother cake. It is optional in this recipe.
  • Vanilla: Vanilla is a home addition of your own and isn't part of this formula.
  • Blini pan: A lightly oiled blini pan is a close alternative to a mokary pan. Start with half-filled wells so the batter doesn't overflow.
  • Flat frying pan: This lets you try the flavor, but you get a pancake shape rather than small round cakes.

Keep the coconut formula and mokary vary's overnight rice-paste method apart. Combining them makes a different, untried recipe.

Mokary at the Malagasy Table

Warm mokary served with coffee at a breakfast table
Moov.Mg and Madagascar Destination both connect mokary with breakfast or a snack

Moov.Mg and Madagascar Destination both place mokary at breakfast or snack time, with a hot drink alongside. Madagascar Destination also notes that family and regional variations exist: rice flour with or without wheat flour, and melted butter or grated coconut as variants. It describes the coconut version as especially popular on the coast. We have no primary historical source for that, so we make no claim about where the dish began or how it spread.

The memory of a village coffee stand in Another Adventure adds a small human detail, but it describes one writer's mornings with mokary vary in the north. It doesn't show how the whole country eats, or how coconut mokary is served.

You can explore more of the country's food on our Madagascar page. Two very different dishes from the same country are koba, a sweet steamed in banana leaf with peanuts, and romazava, a stew of meat and greens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has this recipe been tested?

No. We have not kitchen-tested this formula, and the 200 ml of water and about 4 g of yeast are estimates from general conversions and a manufacturer's sachet size. They are not measurements of the glass or sachet Moov.Mg's author used.

Are mokary and mofo gasy the same?

They are closely related but not treated as identical here. Madagascar Destination associates mofo gasy with the highlands and with fermented rice-flour batter cooked in molds, and treats mokary as a coconut-containing member of that wider family. Its mofo gasy recipe is a separate one and isn't used here.

Can I use a regular frying pan?

You can try the flavor, but you won't get the small round shape. A mokary pan is the closest, and Madagascar Destination also mentions lightly oiled blini pans.

Is grated coconut required?

No. Moov.Mg lists it as optional and gives no amount. The 5 tablespoons here come from the Recette malgache blog, as a guide for when you use it.

Can I make the batter the day before?

We don't recommend it. Moov.Mg's formula rests for 1 hour 30 minutes. Other recipes, such as e-sakafo's version with a 4-hour or overnight ferment, use different formulas, so their timing doesn't transfer. Japan's health ministry also advises against leaving food at room temperature for long.

How many cakes does this make?

Moov.Mg says about 50, but the number depends on the size of your wells, and we have not measured it.

Why isn't the yeast rest longer, or the water warmer?

The 10 minutes for the yeast and 1 hour 30 minutes for the batter are Moov.Mg's times. Vahiné's instructions for its own yeast call for 35°C water and 15 minutes, which applies to that product. Moov.Mg gives no water temperature, so follow your yeast label.

Where does the storage advice come from?

The conditions for leftovers come from the home food-poisoning guidance of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The advice not to taste raw batter comes from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Neither gives a storage period for this dish.

Sources