Old Fashioned Baked Custard With Coconut Food

OLD FASHIONED BAKED CUSTARD WITH COCONUT

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Butter six small ramekins; set aside. Heat up enough water to fill a 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish halfway. Heat milk to near boiling in the microwave or on the stovetop; set aside. Toast the coconut in a skillet; set aside to cool. Reserve one tablespoon of the coconut for garnish.
• Whisk the eggs; beat in the sugar a little at a time. Add the salt and slowly beat in the hot milk, a little at a time, so as not to scramble the eggs. Add the vanilla and all but one tablespoon of coconut.
• Pour evenly into six small ramekins. Sprinkle tops of each ramekin with a fresh grating of nutmeg. Set the ramekins in the baking dish, and slowly pour the hot water around them, up to just under the rims, taking care not to allow the water to come up over the tops.
• Bake about 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven slowly to avoid splashing water into the ramekins and using an oven mitt, carefully remove each ramekin from the water. Sprinkle the reserved coconut over the top of each custard as a garnish. Let cool; can be served warm or cold.
• Makes 4 to 6, depending on the size ramekins used.

OLD FASHIONED COCONUT CUSTARD PIE

Steps:

• Prepare and chill the dough.
• Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
• Use a large nail or an ice pick to puncture one of the three eyes on the coconut (only one can be punctured so you will need to try each until you find it). Drain the coconut milk out over a bowl. Strain it to remove any flecks of shell and reserve it.
• Place the coconut on the oven rack and bake it until it cracks, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove the coconut from the oven and let it cool slightly. Remove shell (it will come away easily), then cut the coconut meat into 8 or 10 pieces. With a vegetable peeler, remove brown skin. Coarsely grate 1 cup coconut, either by hand or in the food processor, and reserve it for the filling. Process the remaining coconut until it is very fine.
• In a large saucepan over low heat, scald the milk until there are bubbles around the edges. Add the finely processed coconut. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool completely. Pour it through a fine strainer into a bowl; press coconut to extract as much moisture as possible.
• In 3 or 4 batches, place coconut in the corner of a clean dish towel and wring out over bowl to extract all remaining liquid. (If you wish, you can toast the wrung out coconut, though it will have very little flavor remaining after soaking in the milk.) Measure the coconut flavored milk and add more milk, if necessary, to make 2 cups. (This may be done earlier in the day or even the day before and set aside tightly covered in the refrigerator.) Pour into a bowl and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla and nutmeg and the reserved coconut milk. Stir in the reserved coarsely grated coconut.
• Set a rack in the lowest level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough for the bottom crust and arrange in pan.
• Pour filling into pie crust. Bake the pie for about 45 minutes, until the crust is baked through and the filling is set, but not over-cooked. After the pie has baked for 30 minutes, check it frequently so it does not over-cook. Once the pie is wobbly textured when the pan is gently shaken, remove it from the oven; it will continue to cook for a few minutes longer after it is removed from the oven. If the pie is over baked, it will be heavy and watery. Cool the pie on a rack.
• To mix the dough by hand, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to mix. Cut butter into 1-tablespoon pieces and add to dry ingredients. Toss once or twice to coat pieces of butter. Then using your hands or a pastry blender, break the butter into tiny pieces and pinch and squeeze it into the dry ingredients. Occasionally reach down to the bottom of the bowl and mix all the ingredients evenly together. Continue rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles a coarse-ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible. Beat the egg(s) in a small bowl and pour over the flour and butter mixture. Stir in with a fork until the dough begins to hold together, but still appears somewhat dry. Scatter a teaspoon of flour on the work surface and scrape the dough out onto it. Press and knead the dough quickly 3 or 4 times, until it is smooth and uniform.
• To mix the dough in the food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in work bowl fitted with metal blade. Pulse 3 times at 1-second intervals to mix. Cut butter into 1 tablespoon pieces and add to work bowl. Process, pulsing repeatedly at 1-second intervals, until the mixture is fine and powdery, resembles a coarse-ground cornmeal and no large pieces of butter remain visible, about 15 pulses in all. Add the egg(s) to the work bowl and pulse ten times or so, until the dough forms a ball. Scatter a teaspoon of flour on the work surface and scrape the dough out onto it. Press and knead the dough quickly 3 or 4 times, until it is smooth and uniform. Press the dough into a disk (two equal disks for the larger amount of dough). Sandwich the disk(s) of dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and press it into a 6-inch circle. Refrigerate the dough until firm, or until you are ready to use it, at least 1 hour.
• Storage: Keep the dough in the refrigerator up to two days, or freeze it double-wrapped in plastic. Because the dough is thin, it will defrost quickly at room temperature when you intend to use it.

OLD-FASHIONED BAKED CUSTARD

Steps:

• In a blender, combine all ingredients. Cover and process until smooth. Pour into a greased 9-in. deep-dish pie plate. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate until serving.

OLD-FASHIONED COCONUT CUSTARD

Steps:

• Combine milk and sugar in pan, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Place egg and cream in a bowl, beat, add condensed milk and warm milk mixture.
• Pour into greased ovenproof dish (8 cup)and sprinkle with coconut.
• Place baking dish with enough hot water to come half-way up the sides of the dish.
• Bake in a moderate oven/180°C until set.

BAKED COCONUT RICE PUDDING

Steps:

• Mix the rice with the coconut milk, milk, lime rind and sugar.
• Pour the rice mixture into a lightly-greased 1.4 litre shollow ovenproff dish and dot the surface with a little butter. Bake in 300 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
• Remove and discard the strip of lime. Stir the pudding well, add the pinch of ground star anise, if using, return to the oven and cook for a further 1-2 hours or until almost all the milk has been absorbed and a golden brown skin has baked on the top of the pudding. Cover the top of the pudding with foil if it starts to brown too much to wards the end of the cooking time.
• Serve the pudding warm or chilled with fresh or stewed fruit.