Coconut and pineapple tart

This recipe is adapted from a lime and coconut tart in the current edition of Delicious magazine.  I adore coconut but find that lime can overpower it, so made a few switches and this incredibly tasty tart was born!

Mr CC came home from work with something rather wonderful this week; one of his colleagues keeps chickens and brought in a spare box of eggs.  I have never baked anything before where I have known the names of the hens who laid the (beautiful) eggs – well done ladies, keep up the good work!

When this tart is baking the smell is divine; pineapple and coconut is a combination where their aromas make it impossible to think of anything other than sunshine and warmth.  Luckily it was a sunny day....but perhaps a few degrees off a Caribbean climate!

It had such a wonderful colour when baked, although I can't help feeling my efforts are wasted.  Mr CC told me how much he liked the pastry (aka biscuit base) and, when asked what flavours he could detect, the CCD guessed 'egg and lemon'.  That well known combination.  How often have you heard someone say, 'ooh, I couldn't half fancy a slice of egg and lemon tart'?  Mr Kipling is probably rushing to his development kitchen as I type.

The recipe said to bake the tart in a loose bottomed flan tin.  I made the executive decision to use a disposable foil tin because I was worried how ‘watertight’ the biscuit tart shell would be.  If you use a loose bottomed tin I recommend wrapping the outside in foil, unless you fancy a few hours cleaning sticky tart filling from the bottom of your, albeit wonderfully tropical smelling, oven!

Ingredients

For the tart shell:
250g digestive biscuits
50g desiccated coconut
140g unsalted butter

For the filling:
160ml coconut milk
250ml coconut cream – I couldn’t find this so used more coconut milk, this may have been why mine took longer to cook
397g condensed milk
140ml pineapple juice
2 large eggs, and 5 yolks

For decoration:
300ml whipping cream
1 small tin pineapple chunks
Optional: coconut shavings

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Blitz the biscuits and coconut in a food processor.

Add the butter and blitz again until it’s the consistency of wet sand.

Tip into either a 23cm loose bottomed flan tin that is 5cm deep, or – as I used – a disposable foil 25cm deep pie dish.

Press the crumbs over the base and up the sides of the tin making sure there are no holes.

Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until it is golden and smelling toasted.

Leave to cool completely.

Reduce the oven temperature to 130°C/fan oven 110°C/260°F/gas mark 3/4.  (This is what the recipe said, however I don’t think my tart would ever have set at this temperature so, after about 40 minutes I increased it to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and my tart set after a further 15 minutes.  Next time I would start it with this temperature and maybe check after 25-30 minutes.  I know all ovens are different, so I thought it best to share my experience.)

Now make the filling: Whisk together all the ingredients then pour, through a sieve, into the biscuit base.  Don’t be tempted to overfill it.  I did and spent the next 10 minutes wiping sticky filling from my kitchen counter, cupboard doors and floor.  It wasn’t fun.  Any leftover filling can be poured into an oven proof dish and baked alongside the tart.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until there’s just a hint of wobble in the centre of the tart – note my observations re oven temperature above.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Refrigerate.

Just before serving, decorate the tart with whipped cream and pineapple chunks.  I piped my cream but it would look as nice spooned on.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.