Coconut Custard with Raspberries and Chocolate Rum Sauce

Today was a day for custard.

Earlier I went to dim sum with my family. I was really looking forward to the little egg custards which are standard fare for dim sum. These little flaky pastries have a smooth yellow custard that is gentle in flavor.

Today, they were okay... I was very 'meh' about them.

So I decided to make my own.

I've never made custard before, but different flavors and ingredients began swirling around in my head once I decided to try my hand at these little treats.

First off, I made the crusts. I don't really like making pastry crusts... the ratio of ingredients, the temperature and the right amount of mixing it.... it seems tedious...

I used to make a lot of pies in high school, so i  had some basic crust skills from then.

Use:
Butter
Flour
Salt
Ice water
A cold bowl to mix it in. Stick it in the freezer first.

I'm awful at giving measurements, and this time I eyeballed everything. Next time I make this I'll get better ideas of measurements, but this time was just experimental.

Cut the butter into small cubes, the colder the butter the better, so they dont melt too much while mixing the dough. Mix em around with the flour and salt until crumbly, chunks of butter are good for a flakey crust. Add ice water as needed. Make sure it's moist, but not wet. Should be crumbly little pieces before you pack it all together, wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour or so.

Now for the fun part!

I decided not to make a straight up egg tart. Instead, I used coconut milk in place of cows milk, both for richness and taste. I think the teeny bit of nuttiness deepens the creamy nature of this custard.

Custard was:
Coconut milk
4 eggs, separated; whites beaten to meringue
Dash of salt
Sugar
Spoonful of flour
Dash of vanilla

Little custards right out of the pan, before decorating and chocolate.

I mixed everything together with an electric mixer, without the whites. It came out pretty thick and tasty, but I wanted a rich in flavor, light in texture dessert. So I folded in the whipped whites. It made the surface a bit bubbly when baking, but texture-wise was still smooth inside. I think next time I may just use the yolks for a nice smooth surface.

The chocolate sauce was:
Semi sweet chocolate chips
Rum

Melt the chips then add the rum till they get to a nice pouring consistency. I like this combo because it's simple and the rum gives the chocolate a tiny extra bit of bitterness. It's not overwhelmingly alcoholly either.

Raspberries made a great topping, though most any fruit will do. Drizzle on the chocolate sauce and you're good to go!