This is a week of strikes – tonight the train is on strike and tomorrow it’s the EDF (Electricity) and Paris public transport. Talking about strike, some students of Nantes University are on their 2nd week of strike as well to protest against an education reform. How can students be on strike? That’s something that puzzles most foreigners who arrive here, me included. You don’t need to go as far as Japan to get “Lost In Translation”.
All these strikes bring me to another topic: coconut is my least favourite fruit! (OK, so there’s actually no connection whatsoever, but bear with me). I don’t like coconut cookies, ice cream or cakes but I love coconut gravies, like curry. Strange isn’t it? 🙂 So why did I make a coconut tart then? Well, one day the cafeteria ran out of sandwiches and all they had were tarts: lemon, chocolate and coconut. I don’t like anything that is sourish nor too chocolaty so that left me the coconut tart – no other choice – needed to feed my growling stomach. I was very surprised at how delicious it was. Since then I have been itching to make a coconut tart like the one I have tasted.
Coconut Tart
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 250 g plain flour (shifted)
- 50 g fine sugar
- 150 g salted butter (cubed)
- 3 tbsp ice cold water
Tart
- 1 egg
- 80 g sugar
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 100 ml liquid cream
- 80 g grated coconut
Directions
Prepare Pie Crust
- In a big bowl, mix the shifted flour and sugar, then add in the butter. Rub the butter and flour mixture with your finger tips until you get a sand like texture. Make a small well, add in 3 tbsp iced cold water. Mix it together to get a dough. Put the dough in a plastic film and let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour.
- Roll out the dough on a baking paper or cloth (flour the cloth first), this will make it easier to flip the rolled out dough onto the pie dish.
- Fork the base and bake it at 180°C (350°F – gas mark 4) for about 15 minutes.
Prepare the coconut fillings
- Beat the egg and sugar in a big bowl.
- Mix the liquid cream and coconut milk in a pan and bring it to a boil.
- Mix this mixture with the beaten egg/sugar.
- Add in the grated coconut.
- Pour the mixture onto the baked pie crust.
- Bake it at 170°C (325°C – gas mark 3) for about 25 minutes.
- Cool it before refrigerating it for a few hours. Serve cold.
The Verdict
I was actually expecting a semi-dry filling, but got surprised to get it moist and creamy, almost like a custard. It’s delicious though – I ended up covering the tart with a layer of melted chocolate (one side with black chocolate, the other side with milk-chocolate). The combination of coconut and chocolate was really nice – and reminiscent of the Bounty chocolate bar.
