Ube Coconut Cream Pie
I’m excited to bring you the first recipe of the season on The Riza, Ube Coconut Cream Pie Filling. I’m excited for these reasons:
I finished this damn thing! The work that goes into bringing an idea to life. Oooff, this may be my only recipe this season.
This recipe actually worked! My cousins said that it’s just the right amount of ube and coconut — not overwhelming.
This Filipina is bringing you Filipino-American recipes! Another voice out here in the inter web space verifying that ube is indeed from the Philippines! Ube is growing in popularity here in the States. I don’t mind it because Filipinos love sharing their food, but ya’ll better be giving us credit ( you may have given credit, but I had to dig so I’m still side eye-ing you Trader Joe’s)! I saw what y’all did to quinoa and purple potatoes (different from Ube, these baddies come from Chile).
So without further ado, scroll for the recipe. But note, this recipe is just the pie filling. Be sure to have your pie shell at the ready — baked and cooled — because this filling comes together quickly and should be poured into a pie shell once it’s done.
Tools:
Baking Sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon baking mat
Pie Pan, 9 inch diameter — I’m using Great Jones Sweetie Pie
Food thermometer
Sauce pan, preferably stainless steel to keep cream filling from discoloring — I love my Saucy from Great Jones
Mixing bowls
Whisk
Ube Coconut Cream Filling Ingredients:
1 cup Coconut Flakes toasted, 3 tbs reserved for topping
1 cup of Whole Milk
1 cup of Chaokoh Unsweetened Canned Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Whole Egg
3 Egg Yolks
4 tbs. Cornstarch
3 tbs. Butter
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
4 tbs. Ube Jam — see recipe here
METHOD
Toasted Coconut Flakes:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle coconut flakes evenly on the baking sheet.
Toast coconut flakes for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool. Reserve 3 tbs. coconut flakes for topping.
Ube Coconut Cream Filling:
In a mixing bowl, whisk whole egg and egg yolks.
Sift cornstarch and sugar into the eggs and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
In a saucepan, whisk together whole milk, coconut milk, and sugar to dissolve. Whisk constantly as to not scorch milk. Use your food thermometer to bring milk to a boiling point. Boiling point of coconut milk is 150 degrees and milk is 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now you’ll be tempering the eggs (and testing your ambidextrous skills). Slowly pour the sugar and milk mixture into the egg mixture while stirring together.
Return the mixture to the saucepan, put on medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. The mixture comes together quickly, thickening within 5 minutes. So do not leave its side and do not stop stirring or else you’ll end up with a lumpy and/or scorch filling. I removed the pot from heat as soon as my whisk slows its roll in the mixture. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
Remove the saucepan from heat (as in don’t leave it on the burner that’s still hot after you turn it off — it needs to stop cooking completely) and mix in butter and vanilla.
At this point, divide the cream filling in half — one half in a bowl with the ube jam and the other half with the toasted coconut flakes. Then mix. If you’re lazy, just combine it all together. you just won’t have that pretty yellow and purple layered pie.
Fill your pie, smoothing out the ube layer before adding the coconut layer (or vice versa if you want the ube on top). Refrigerate for up to 8 hours.
Once the filling is set, top with whipped cream and reserved toasted coconut flakes
TIPS
Pie Dough:
I got my pie dough recipe from Claire Saffitz’s book Dessert Person.
I roll out my dough on a pastry cloth. I really like to make sure my dough doesn’t stick to the counter.
I also use the pastry cloth to help fold my rolled out pie dough to allow for easy picking up and placing into the pie pan.
Lastly, do not skip the freezing of the rolled-out-pie-dough-in-the-pan-for-10-mins step. Just don’t. And don’t adjust it like I did. I put my prepared pie dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Don’t ask me why because it just doesn’t make sense why I would choose 30 minutes in the refrigerator over 10 minutes in the freezer. Just like you freeze sugar cookies before baking them, you freeze the made up pie crust so it holds its shape while baking. As you can see from my photos, because I did my own thing instead of trusting in baking goddess Claire Saffitz, my crust shrunk while it baked. You can see that it’s pulled away from the pie pan, it buckled during the blind bake, and it didn’t hold that beautiful crimp. So whatever pie dough recipe you use (you should really just use Claire’s recipe because it’s wonderful and I’m saying this as a homemaker who really loves pie and making pie — her pie crust is the best I’ve ever had), just follow the damn recipe, okay?
Ube Coconut Cream Filling:
Ube is naturally a vibrant purple, but that color will get muted as you mix it into the cream filling. Here’s some color theory for you — yellow and purple are complementary colors and when you mix complementary colors, the color gets closer to grey. So don’t add more than the recommended amount of ube jam or else you’ll have a grayish filling. If you’re dead set on that vibrant purple, you can add a few drops of this ube extract, but I prefer to have that ube flavor come for the actual ube not no extract.
And speaking of natural flavors, I’ve seen too many coconut cream pie recipes that just use coconut flakes and call it coconut cream pie or just use coconut extract. Boo. Coconut has an amazing flavor so I don’t understand why people don’t take advantage of it. And it’s not difficult to come by. You just have to get your hands on some good canned coconut milk. My family has used Chaokoh, a Thai canned coconut milk brand, for as long as I can remember in all our Filipino desserts. You can find it in any Asian market and I’m pretty sure Walmart carries it too. It is trusted to give that authentic coconut flavor. If you really love coconut, go and do the full 2 cups of coconut milk instead of 1 cup milk and 1 cup coconut milk.
If you mash your ube by hand, there will be lumps in your cream filling. My family and I didn’t mind the bits of ube, but if you want a smoother cream filling, maybe put your ube through a blender or a food processor instead of mashing it by hand.
Whipped Cream:
I’m really proud of myself coming up with this whipped cream tip. My pie dough shortcut (or long cut) didn’t do any good, but this shortcut turned out to be a dream. I love a beautifully designed edge of whipped cream on a pie, but I didn’t want to pull out a pastry cream bag and frosting tips. I had remembered something that was done with pillowy meringue and two spoons on the The Great British Baking Show (who can name that dessert and what episode it was on?) so I did just that. I scooped up a bit of whipped cream with one spoon and used the other to roll the whipped cream off onto the pie. Quick and easy! Plus, it fits with the rustic look of my pie.
Use the whipped cream photos as reference on how stiff the whipped cream should be to do the scooped whipped cream technique. Btw, if you’re an artist, here’s a note for you. I feel like more and more artists are challenging themselves by using their non-dominant hand. Whisking whipping cream is an activity I use to strengthen my non-dominant hand.
Also, if you’re looking for a whipped cream recipe, don’t really have one. I just eyeball it.
about a cup of whipping cream
a heaping tablespoon of powdered sugar
about a teaspoon of vanilla extract
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