TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

Coconut is pretty controversial in the TWD baking group. I think it's like raisins, you either love it or you hate it -- there's absolutely no in between. I've mentioned it here before, but for the longest time (until the past two or three years) I hated coconut. I was one with the whole chewing on dental floss sentiment. I didn't like the smell, the flavor, or the texture. I always gave away any Mounds or Almond Joys that came to me in my trick-or-treat basket. Forget using them as chips to bargain for other, better candy -- I just wanted to get those vile coconut-filled candies out of my presence. Something changed, though, and I'm now a coconut lover (but I still don't like Almond Joy or Mounds, strange, yes?). I like coconut in both savory and sweet things, and I was very happy to see coconut show up in not one, but two weeks for the March TWD recipes. Even though there are still ugly black snow mountains all around me, I can at least channel tropical sun as I eat my dessert!

There's just something about baking with coconut or pineapple that puts me in a fabulous mood; and I swear, I could almost hear the waves and feel the sun and sand while I was toasting my coconut.

I made 1/2 of the toasted-coconute custard recipe. 1/2 of this recipe should equal 4 tartelettes but as I only had 3 tartelette shells, 1/2 the custard equals three tartelettes plus an extra litte bowl of custard for the singleton (and I very happily ate that custard). Now, the recipe calls for some dark rum, and I didn't have said rum. I do, however, have plenty of light rum as a mojito is, more often than not, my drink of choice in the warmer months. I smelled the light rum, though, and it didn't seem like it was really going to be a great choice to substitute in this recipe (read: woah, boozy!). I ended up putting about half as much light rum in the custard (it was so warm that I think most of the booziness cooked out), and I added about 1/8 of a teaspoon of coconut extract in addition to the vanilla extract. I loved, loved, loved the custard so much that I almost skipped the whipped cream and tart shells. The whipped cream is easy peasy to get together (I left out the rum altogether in the cream and added just a scosh of coconut extract instead), and these are just very simple little tarts to assemble. 

If you didn't already guess, I loved these tartelettes! I mean, these were a huge, huge hit around here. This is definitely on my Top 10 TWD dessert list. And, full disclaimer, pie/tarts are on the very bottom of my dessert chain. But this tart is just tropical and coconut-filled goodness. I really could've done without the tart shell and enjoyed my custard in a ramekin with a dollop of the whipped cream and sprinkle of coconut custard . . . and if I make this again for just me, that's exactly what I'd do. But, I'm going to place this recipe in the "bang for your buck" and "excellent use of time" and "great for company" categories, too. First of all, I love that, as Dorie mentions, this is such a classic diner dessert prettied up with the tart shell. Second, this was NOT time consuming, and I was worried it might be. I made the sweet tart dough Saturday night, and then it took me a grand total of about 2 hours to mix, stir, bake, toast, whip, and assemble these cuties on Sunday. All in all, I don't think this is a time-heavy dessert. Last, I really do think this is a great dinner party dessert because you can get everything together ahead of time and whip the cream and assemble it at the last minute . . . provided the aforementioned coconut haters are not eating at your house that evening! Thank you SO much to Beryl of Cinemon Girl for choosing this fantastic recipe. If you'd like the recipe, you can head over to her blog.