Quindim (Coconut Yolk Custard with a Glassy Top)

Variations

• Brisa do Lis: the Portuguese pudding ko.wikipedia calls almost the same thing. It uses ground almond instead of coconut and adds the sugar as a syrup boiled first. It is one of Portugal's convent sweets.
• Quindão: the same mixture baked in one large ring mould. The bigger it is, the longer the water bath takes.
• The shape in the photograph: those were baked in small moulds with a hollow in the centre. The shape of the mould becomes the top.
• The whites: twelve are left over. Meringue, or any sweet made with whites only, takes them.

Tips

• A custard with nothing to disperse the yolks in. Crème brûlée sets its yolks in cream and crème caramel in milk. Crème caramel's Philippine variation, leche flan, is "made with condensed and evaporated milk and yolks only", but those yolks are still in milk, and the kaya on kaya toast is "a jam of coconut milk, egg and pandan". Quindim has none of that liquid. Apart from the melted butter and what the coconut holds, the only water in the mixture is the yolks' own, which is why it bakes denser and glossier than those custards.
• Which is why it parts into two layers in the oven. With no liquid to hold the coconut shreds in suspension, the coconut usually separates from the yolk mixture as it bakes and gathers into a layer at the top of the mould. Turned out, that layer is the base, and the yolk and sugar that set against the floor of the mould are the shining top. Two layers from one pour, with nothing poured twice.
• The water bath is a brake here too, exactly as crème brûlée uses it: "Water cannot exceed 100°C, so the outside of the ramekin never runs far ahead and the edge and the centre set at roughly the same rate." The same page adds: "A yolk custard sets at 80–84°C and coagulates too far above that, squeezing out water." Quindim, with sugar close to the weight of the yolks, bakes for longer, but the test for taking it out is the same: the whole thing wobbles as one mass.
• Why the mould is buttered and sugared. It is turned out, so first it has to release, and the face that set against the mould is the face everyone sees. The butter does the releasing and the sugar smooths that face. Sugar left loose in the mould leaves grains in the top, so tip the excess out.
• Whisk in no air. As crème brûlée warns, "Air beaten into the yolks survives as foam on the surface" and sets that way. Here that surface ends up underneath once it is turned out, but bubbles spread through the mixture leave holes in the shining face. Sieving the yolks and letting the mixture stand ten minutes is what stops it.
• Turn it out cold. Warm, the yolk layer that will be the top is still soft. Two hours in the fridge and it stands up when inverted.