Maya's Coconut Tart

There's a great restaurant in St. Barth called Maya's that my family goes to every year. One of my favorite parts of a night at Maya's is finishing off with a slice of coconut tart. It's so delicious and crunchy and caramelized. We were having friends over for dinner last weekend and I was trying to think of something new to make for dessert. I googled around wondering if Maya's recipe had made it online, and it had! Jean-Georges published it for Food & Wine! (You can see it here.) It was so good and tasted just like how Maya makes it. Coconut fans will love it. Definitely get fresh coconut and shred it yourself - do not get the pre-shredded coconut. It will be too fine.

We bought two coconuts. You poke out the eyes with a screw driver and drain the coconut milk (it's so tasty!) then tap up and down the seem of the coconut with a hammer until it cracks.

Ingredients:
Tart Shell:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" cubes
1/3 cup ice water with a little apple cider vinegar in it

Tart Filling:
Meat from 1-2 coconuts, shredded to make 3 cups
2 large egg yolks
3 tbsp flour
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and bean reserved for another use
1 1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

Directions:
First make the crust, several hours before you want to eat the tart. Sift the flower and salt into a large bowl.

Put in butter and using a pastry cutter or two knives, incorporate the butter until it looks like little peas. 

Slowly add the water, tablespoon by tablespoon, until the dough just comes together. You don't want it to get too doughy. 

Quickly push it together into a ball (don't work it too much - the heat from your hands will melt the butter).

Push it into a disk, wrap in Saran wrap, and put in the freezer to chill for a few hours.

Shred the coconut using a Cuisinart or using a box grater. (Cuisinart will save you time and effort!)

Roll out the dough. 

It should be a little bigger than 12 inches (to fit in a 12-inch tart pan). 

Put the tart pan on top just to judge the size.

Push the dough gently into the tart pan and up the sides, and trim off any excess.

Put in the freezer to chill for 20 minutes to set the pastry. Preheat the oven to 350. 

After 20 minutes, cover the pastry in foil and fill will pie weights, dried beans, or in my case, pebbles from the driveway.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. (I didn't make for this step long enough because I'd left it in the freezer a little longer than 20 minutes. You want it to set the pastry and get a little golden.)

Remove the weights and return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. (It shrunk away from the sides because I didn't blind bake it for quite long enough.) Let the crust cool. 

For the custard, scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean pod. 

In a small sauce pan, mix vanilla bean seeds, egg yolks, and flour.

Slowly whisk in milk until smooth. (Fine if there are some chunks - it will be covered in coconut so you won't see it.)

Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, for 5 minutes or so until it's thickened. 

See all those little vanilla seeds? Yum! Pour it into a bowl, cover in Saran - touching the surface - and let cool to room temperature. 

With the oven still at 350, pour the cooled custard into the cooled tart.

In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, toss the coconut with the brown sugar. 

Cook until starting to get translucent, about 1 minute. 

Sprinkle the coconut evenly over the custard. 

Bake until the coconut is a uniformly golden brown and there are some crispy bits, about 45 minutes to an hour. This will make your house smell incredible. 

Let the tart cool to warm or to room temperature and serve with ice cream.