Palm Sugar Coconut Tarts

Carlos has been asking me to make some coconut tarts for the longest time and I finally made some for him last week. I think the last time I made these were a few years ago. I used the same recipe for the pastry of my previous coconut tarts and did some changes on the filling. Since I have quite a bit of palm sugar or gula Melaka brought from Malaysia I decided to use it in the filling as coconut always goes well palm sugar. True enough, we prefer this version of coconut filling to the one using white sugar. These little tarts look so cute and great to have it for afternoon tea. I am planning to make some again for our upcoming tea party. If you can’t find palm sugar you can always replace it with dark brown sugar.

Ingredients for the pastry:

280 gram flour
50 gram sugar
1 egg
150 gram butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 tbsp cornstarch
½ tsp salt

Ingredients for the Filling:

250 gram fresh grated coconut
40 gram soft butter
120 palm sugar/gula Melaka
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tbsp cornstarch

1. Prepare the filling. Chop the palm sugar into small pieces. Put it in a small saucepan with water. Cook the sugar until dissolve and thickens. Set it aside to cool completely.
2. Prepare the pastry. Sift flour and cornstarch together into a mixing bowl. Add in the sugar and salt. Mix well. Rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
3. Add in egg. Mix until the pastry begins to form into dough. If it is too dry you can add in 1-2 tbsp of cold water. Press together gently with your fingers to form the pastry into a ball. Chill pastry dough for about 30 minutes.
4. In a bowl, add the palm sugar syrup with the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix well and set it aside. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree F.
 5. Grease some little tart moulds. Press pastry evenly into tart mould. Trim the edges to remove excessive dough. Fill tarts with filling.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.  Leave the tarts in moulds for 5 minutes before turning it out onto wire rack to cool.

I am submitting this post to Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)"