Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie by Maree Tate - Wolsinghan Foodie Book Club
Maree Tate from Wolsingham Foodie book Club has gifted this recipe for Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie.
She brought it in to one of our meetings to go along with the book Bournville by Jonathan Coe, and it was so popular that the leftovers were taken home by our members.
Because of the book connection, Maree used Bournville chocolate in the recipe, and boy did it taste good.
How could we not share it with you here!
Maree tell me “This pie is decadent and delicious. Worth the effort”
Let us know what you think
A decedent pie, well worth making.
Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie
What You Need
Base
250g Digestive Biscuits
100g Butter
30g Coconut Flakes
Filling
2 x 400g Tins Full Fat Coconut Milk – Left in the fridge, Upside down, for 24 hrs – See Tip Box
280g Dark Chocolate – Chopped in to very small pieces.
1 tbsp Coconut Oil
Topping
20g Coconut Flakes
20g Dark Chocolate – Chopped into rough pieces.
½ tsp Flaky Sea Salt
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
2 x 400g Tins Full Fat Coconut Milk – Left in the fridge, Upside down, for 24 hrs – See Tip Box
5 tbsp Icing Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
How It’s Done
Base
Place the coconut flakes into a dry frying pan and, over a medium heat, let them toast until some of them become a light golden colour – See Tip Box
Place the toasted coconut and the digestive biscuits into a food processor and whiz it up until it breaks down into biscuit crumbs.
Once they resemble biscuit crumbs, pour them into a large bowl.
Melt the butter - See Tip Box
Pour the melted butter in with the biscuit crumbs and mix well until the crumbs are coated with the melted butter.
Line the inside of a 2-cm loose bottomed tin with non-stick baking parchment, leaving an overhang of around 2”, making sure to push it as flat as possible up against the sides of the tin – See Tip Box
Tip the buttered crumbs into the lined tin and use the bottom of a small flat glass to compact and flatten the crumbs in the bottom and a little way up the sides.
Put the tin in the fridge to firm up for no less than 30 minutes.
While the base is chilling, make the filling.
Filling
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place into a heat proof bowl.
Set it aside until needed.
Keeping the tins of chilled coconut milk upside down, open the tins from the bottom and scoop out the firm coconut cream into a microwavable bowl, putting aside the liquid milk to use in something else.
Add the coconut oil to the bowl with the coconut cream and, in the microwave, heat in 30 second bursts, mixing each time, until the coconut cream has melted and almost at boiling heat.
Pour the hot coconut mixture over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes.
After the time is up, give the chocolate a few stirs until what’s left is a smooth ganache.
Remove the cooled biscuit base from the fridge and pour the chocolate coconut ganache over the base layer, smoothing the top.
Put the pie back into the fridge for 2 hours to cool completely.
While the pie is cooling make the topping.
Topping
Heat the oven to 160c.
Line an oven proof tray with non-stick baking parchment or a silicone mat.
Tip the coconut flakes into a bowl along with the maple syrup and 1/2 tsp of the flaky salt.
Gently mix it all together, making sure the coconut flakes don’t break up.
Pour the coconut flakes onto the prepared tray and bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes.
Remove them from the oven and then leave on the tray until completely cold.
With the coconut milk tins still upside down, open the tins from the bottom and scoop out all of the solid coconut cream into a bowl – the amount of coconut cream should be around 250g.
Add the icing sugar to the bowl along with the vanilla extract.
Use a whisk to whisk together until thick and smooth.
Assembly
Once the filling has completely set, while it is still in the tin, spoon the coconut cream topping over the top and make smooth.
Use a cheese grater to grate the dark chocolate over the top of the pie – covering as much or as little of the pie as you like.
Gently loosen the tin and remove the pie onto a serving plate.
Serve cool
Tip Box
Toasting the coconut – Toasting the coconut milk does a couple of things to enhance the coconut. Firstly, it intensifies the flavour and secondly, it makes the coconut crisp up.
Be brave when toasting the pieces, don’t take them off the heat to soon, shake them a lot so they don’t catch. And don’t take your eyes off them for a moment.
Store the full fat coconut milk – There’s a trick to getting the coconut milk to be coconut cream. Store the full fat coconut milk upside down in the fridge for no less than 24 hours. After this time, the solid should separate from the liquid – the solid is the cream.
When opening the tin, don’t upright the tin, open it from the bottom. Spoon the thick layer of solid cream out of the tin before pouring out the milk to use for something else.
Melt the butter – There is a couple of ways to melt the butter.
1) In the microwave – Place the butter into a microwavable bowl and heat in 30 second bursts until the butter is completely melted.
2) In a saucepan - Place the butter into a saucepan and heat on a low heat until the bitter is completely melted.
Line the tin – Lining the tin with non-stick baking parchment will help the cream pie come out of the tin easily.
Leaving an overhang of a couple of inches helps with the lifting out of the pie.
