Coconut desserts

My friend's 60th is next weekend and he's the bomb diggity. He also loves coconut. To celebrate, I want to bring him a nice array of sweets. Cookies, candies, cake...anything that can be easily transported, so no flan, ice cream, etc.

Who has the best stuff in the city/near 'burbs? Thanks!

Immediately thought of Nellie's Avena de Coco, their legendary coconut oatmeal. Doesn't fall into the category of what you want unless your friend would like a killer breakfast for the next morning

Nellie's
2458 W. Division St.
Open breakfast and lunch only

senoritap wrote:Doesn't fall into the category of what you want unless your friend would like a killer breakfast for the next morning...

No, but now I have a new place for me! Thanks for the tip!

I love coconut flavor, but I absolutely get skeeved out by the flakes. Seriously, shivers just thinking about them little shits stuck in my teeth - yuck. LOVE the flavor though. I'd ask the major pie purveyors if they'd fry up some kind of coconut cream pie or something special for ya? Hoosier Mama, the other couple of fancy-ish pie joints (forgot the names.) I also might find your favorite Mexican bakery, and ask them to make a Tres Leches with coconut flakes and coconut milk, too.

Jamaican bakeries will have good coconut stuff as well. Caribbean American Bakery makes a great caramel and coco ball that is just of chunks of raw coconut held together with a very dark caramel.

Fat Rice has Coconut rice. I'm not generally fond of coconut stuff, but I do like that.

Octarine wrote:Jamaican bakeries will have good coconut stuff as well. Caribbean American Bakery makes a great caramel and coco ball that is just of chunks of raw coconut held together with a very dark caramel.

Oh lawdy. This has now become a shopping trip for me as well.

A friend gave me a recipe for coconut moochi cake that's killer if you're up for making something.

Jazzfood wrote:A friend gave me a recipe for coconut moochi cake that's killer if you're up for making something.

I'm always up for new recipes! Thanks!

I would take that recipe too. Never made a mochi cake, but a coconut version sounds great.

Had this @ a dinner party, enjoyed it so much I asked for the recipe, which was supplied by Leone McDermott. Doubt she'll mind me sharing. I garnish w/toasted coconut and maybe some ice cream if you want.

Two points:
1) Although the recipe says to smooth the top after pouring the batter into the pan, my batter was liquid enough that that wasn't needed.  I've no idea why that was the case, except that my eggs were probably closer to jumbo than large in size.
2) The recipe says to bake for 1 1/2 hours, but my cake took only about 65 min.  My oven runs pretty true to temperature, so I can't account for this. Lee, who made the chocolate mochi cake, also said that hers was done early. I'd start checking after about an hour.

Hawaiian Sweet-Rice-Flour Coconut Cake

3 cups (1 pound) mochiko (sweet rice flour)
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk (not low-fat)
5 large eggs
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Equipment: a 13-by-9-inch baking pan

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
   
Whisk together mochiko, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together coconut milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla in another bowl. Add coconut mixture to flour mixture, whisking until combined.

Pour batter into ungreased baking pan, smoothing top. Bake until top is golden and cake is beginning to pull away from sides of pan, about 1 1/2 hours. Cook cake completely in pan on a rack.

Cut cake into 24 squares before serving.

Thanks much! Where do you find your mochiko? I bought the wrong thing at Jewel, just "rice flour."

I bought it @ Whole Foods I believe, but any Asian grocery should have it.

Jazzfood wrote:I bought it @ Whole Foods I believe, but any Asian grocery should have it.

Thanks!

I have followed the cooking blog, Daily Cooking Quest, pretty much from its inception in 2013. Anita is a home cook in Indonesia (the blog is largely about Indonesian cooking) and I have always found her writing fascinating as well as instructive. She is clear, her pictures are wonderful (she takes them herself), and her recipes are delicious. Even better, she is extremely responsive. I had a question once about a particular ingredient and she responded quickly and with an extremely helpful answer.
There is an index by category, including desserts and I'd suggest agar srikaya, a fairly straightforward, classic Indonesian dessert. It's basically coconut and palm sugar! Good luck.
(If you're curious, she also has a killer recipe for srikaya, a coconut/egg jam that is impossibly decadent--not quite a dessert, although I know someone--ahem--who has made it and then eaten it with a spoon, right out of the pan!)

Jazzfood wrote:Had this @ a dinner party, enjoyed it so much I asked for the recipe, which was supplied by Leone McDermott. Doubt she'll mind me sharing. I garnish w/toasted coconut and maybe some ice cream if you want.

Two points:
1) Although the recipe says to smooth the top after pouring the batter into the pan, my batter was liquid enough that that wasn't needed.  I've no idea why that was the case, except that my eggs were probably closer to jumbo than large in size.
2) The recipe says to bake for 1 1/2 hours, but my cake took only about 65 min.  My oven runs pretty true to temperature, so I can't account for this. Lee, who made the chocolate mochi cake, also said that hers was done early. I'd start checking after about an hour.

Hawaiian Sweet-Rice-Flour Coconut Cake

3 cups (1 pound) mochiko (sweet rice flour)
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk (not low-fat)
5 large eggs
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Equipment: a 13-by-9-inch baking pan

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
   
Whisk together mochiko, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together coconut milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla in another bowl. Add coconut mixture to flour mixture, whisking until combined.

Pour batter into ungreased baking pan, smoothing top. Bake until top is golden and cake is beginning to pull away from sides of pan, about 1 1/2 hours. Cook cake completely in pan on a rack.

Cut cake into 24 squares before serving.

Been cutting out gluten lately, I'm definitely going to make this. Thank you!

Jazzfood wrote:Had this @ a dinner party, enjoyed it so much I asked for the recipe, which was supplied by Leone McDermott. Doubt she'll mind me sharing. I garnish w/toasted coconut and maybe some ice cream if you want.

Love this style of cake, and from the same stream, haupia can transport well and look beautiful if made with enough arrow root (try Bob's Red Mill at WF) or corn starch over whatever flavorful leaf you can get.

Another gel-type preparation to consider is Turkish delight / lokum, which is a magical vehicle for good shredded coconut, though admittedly not to everyone's texture preference (though have you tried lokum s'mores? Perfect use of a slightly stale box). I like this moist version including the food coloring for effect: http://www.completelydelicious.com/proj ... h-delight/