This fresh, bright creamy lime coconut curd is baked inside of a toasted coconut pastry shell to make for a bright tropical tart. This Coconut Lime Tart is perfect any time of year.
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This tart is an absolute sweet burst of sunshine! It starts with a toasted coconut tart crust (toasting the coconut adds another level of flavor) that is crisp and crumbly. Then, a lime curd is cooked with a bit of reduced coconut milk (it's reduced to bump up the flavor) to make for a perfectly sweet, tangy, and creamy filling.
While the tart is certainly delicious enough to eat on its own, it's amazing topped off with some fresh fruit such as mango, raspberries, and blackberries.
How to Make the Toasted Coconut Tart Shell
This tart shell is a take on this Pâte Sablée pastry, but with toasted coconut added in.
It's made easily in the food processor. The pastry is quite soft after it is made, so it needs to chill for 30 minutes before you can easily roll it out.
Once it's chilled, it can be rolled out and blind baked. It needs to be blind-baked because the filling is mostly cooked on the stove, and just goes into the oven for a brief 15-minute bake to set up the coconut lime curd. Blind baking ensures a crisp crust.
How to Toast Coconut
There are a few ways to toast coconut. You can do it in a heavy-bottomed pan on the stove. You can bake it in the oven, or you can broil it.
The "safest" method is to bake it in the oven. But be careful, coconut can go from being toasted to burnt in a matter of seconds. So keep a close eye on it.
Directions for Toasting Coconut in the Oven:
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF and place a rack in the upper part of the oven.
- Place shredded coconut on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake in the upper rack of the oven for 10-15 minutes, stirring the coconut every 5 minutes, or until toasted.
- Set aside to cool.
Crust Alternatives
I tested this recipe with a Graham Cracker Crumb Crust too, just to see how it turned out. It works fine if you want to skip the step of making the pastry shell.
Making the Coconut Lime Curd
The filling for this tart is a cross between curd and a custard. First, it starts off with coconut cream.
Coconut cream is the opaque milky thick part that rises to the top of a can of full-fat chilled coconut milk. It is comparable to the difference between dairy cream and milk. You can also buy it separately in a can labeled as coconut cream.
The recipe calls for 2-ยผ cups coconut cream, and it will likely take you at least two (14 ounce) cans of full-fat coconut milk to get it. Make sure they are chilled when you open them so that the cream can separate from the clear liquid in the coconut milk can. If the can is warm, there won't be any separation and you won't be able to get just to coconut cream.
The coconut cream needs to be reduced on the stove for about five minutes. This deepens the coconut flavor of the pie without watering the filling down. After five minutes, it should reduce down to about 2 cups of coconut cream.
After it has been reduced, the warm coconut cream is used to temper the egg yolk and sugar mixture. And then, the whole mixture is combined and cooked on the stove until it is thick.
Once it's thickened, strain it through a strainer just in case you have any bits of cooked egg (though it's unlikely) and whisk in some butter and a lot of lime zest. The lime zest is really where a lot of the lime flavor is found.
Then, the filling is baked for about 10-15 minutes until the filling is completely set.
Decorating the Tart
While this tart is perfectly fine to be served without any adornment, adding on some fresh fruit is a fabulous addition. The fruit not only makes the tart quite beautiful, but it tastes amazing, too.
You can get as creative as you want. Fresh berries and mango are a great option, with some fresh mint leaves for a pop of color. I also recommend sprinkling on some untoasted shredded coconut. This gives another level of coconut flavor.
A second alternative for decorating the tart would be to pipe on some meringue! This is another ideal choice since you will already have leftover egg whites from this recipe. Check out this Swiss Meringue recipe that would be perfect on top of this.
How to Store It
This pie is best consumed within 1-2 days after being made. Do not add any berries until just before serving.
It should be stored in the in the refrigerator and served chilled.
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Coconut Lime Tart
This fresh, bright creamy lime coconut curd is baked inside of a toasted coconut pastry shell to make for a bright tropical tart. This Coconut Lime Tart is perfect any time of year.
- Prep Time: 00:30
- Cook Time: 00:40
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8
- Category: Sweet
- Method: Bake
Ingredients
For Coconut Crust:
- 1-ยผ cup (150 grams) all-purpose flour
- ยฝ cup (30 grams) shredded coconut, toasted
- ยผ cup (30 grams) powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt
- ½ cup (112 grams) unsalted butter, cold, diced
- 1 large egg
For Coconut Lime Filling:
- 2-ยผ cups (510 grams) coconut cream (see note)
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch
- 5 large egg yolks
- โ cup (75 grams) fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons (25 grams) unsalted butter, cubed (optional)
- 2 tablespoons lime zest
Instructions
Make the Pie Crust:
- Add the flour, toasted shredded coconut, powdered sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Process for 1 minute to break down the coconut.
- Add in the butter and pulse 5-7 times, or until the butter is broken down into small pieces.
- With the motor running, pour in the egg and let the dough process until it forms together into a cohesive ball around the blade, about 1 minute.
- Transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap and form into a disk and wrap tightly.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF
- Roll out the dough to a rough 11″ circle and place inside of a 9″ tart pan. Pierce the bottom of the pastry with a fork to allow the steam to escape when baking. Place the pastry in the freezer for 10 minutes to chill.
- Line the pastry with a round piece of parchment paper and then add pie weights to fill (or dry rice or beans or lentils), making sure to push pie weights up against the edges. Bake for 20 minutes on the lower rack, then remove from the oven and remove the parchment and pie weights. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Turn down the oven to 350ºF.
Make the Filling:
- Add coconut cream to a medium nonreactive pot and bring the cream up to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil, for 5 minutes. The coconut cream can potentially boil over, so stay close to moderate the heat, turning it down as necessary, to prevent the cream from boiling over and stirring every few minutes. After 5 minutes, the cream should be reduced to about 2 cups. Shut off the heat and let cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks and lime juice vigorously until the mixture has lightened in color.
- Next, temper the egg mixture: Slowly pour in about ยผ cup of the warm reduced coconut cream to the eggs, while gently whisking. Then, pour the whole egg mixture slowly into the pot of the coconut cream while gently whisking.
- Turn on the heat to medium and cook the mixture, whisking constantly until the filling has completely thickened and large bubbles are forming and popping, about 4-6 minutes.
- Remove from heat; immediately pour the lime coconut curd through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, using a spatula to push all the curd out while leaving behind any bits of cooked egg.
- Whisk the butter and the lime zest into the curd.
- Transfer the coconut lime curd to the baked tart shell, and smooth over the top.
- Bake in the center rack for 10 minutes, until the filling is set.
- Let cool on a cooling rack until it has reached room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator to finish chilling, at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Decorate the pie with fresh fruit and berries, as desired.
Notes
Coconut cream is the opaque milky thick part that rises to the top of a can of full-fat chilled coconut milk. It is comparable to the difference between dairy cream and milk. You can also buy it separately, in a can labeled as coconut cream. It will likely take you about two (14 ounce) cans of full-fat coconut milk to get 2 cups of coconut cream. Make sure they are chilled and not hot when you open them so that the cream can separate from the clear liquid in the coconut milk can. Use any leftover coconut milk in smoothies!
Don’t skimp on the lime zest, it truly adds a ton of flavor to this tart.
It’s optional to whisk the butter into the filling at the end. It rounds out the flavor of the coconut and lime, but it is completely optional.
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Kristin
This tart is ahh-mazing! I made this for Easter and everyone loved it! Read the post start to finish, it makes the recipe so easy to follow and accounts for all the things you may not have thought of. I canโt wait to make this again.
I honestly am thinking of a reason to make it right now and I just finished my slice!