Pacific & Hawaiian · Dessert
Haupia
- Easy
- 25 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, real fire that builds and stays.
Ingredients
- 800ml coconut milk (two cans, full-fat: this dessert is coconut wearing a suit)
- 80g sugar; pinch of salt
- 60g cornstarch (the modern standard; pia, Polynesian arrowroot, is the ancestor)
- 120ml water to slurry the starch
- A square pan; cut into cubes when set, per luau law
The skills inside
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Warm coconut milk with sugar and salt.
- Whisk the cornstarch slurry in; cook over medium, whisking constantly, 5–8 min until it thickens to a heavy pudding that holds a trail. 8 min
- Pour into the pan; smooth; press film to the surface.
- Chill 3 h until firm; cut into neat squares. Serve cold, on ti leaf if you have it, or layer over chocolate in a pie shell for the famous chocolate haupia pie. 180 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Banyuls or Ruby Port
- Also Right
- PX Sherry
- From the Taps
- Imperial stout
- Zero-Proof
- Espresso
Chocolate wants fortified sweetness or roast-bitter contrast: the wine must out-sweet the plate, or oppose it entirely.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.