It seems like every week Tuesday arrives more quickly – here it is again and most of the past week is a hazy sleep deprived blur. But despite my sleep deprived state I found the time and energy to make Beryl’s (of Cinemon Girl) pick: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart on pages 344 and 345.

I have very fond memories of eating my grandmother’s coconut cream pie as a child so I was looking forward to giving this recipe a try.

Even though I was looking forward to trying this recipe, I couldn’t resist a few changes:

1) I decided to use Dorie’s chocolate tart dough instead of her sweet tart dough.  When pulsing the dry ingredients together for the dough I tossed in a handful or so of coconut.

2) I used only a quarter of the rum the recipe called for and I added it to the custard while it was cooking so the alcohol would have a chance to cook off some. I also added a splash of coconut extract.

3) I added mini chocolate chips to the custard after it had cooled sufficiently.

4) I left the rum entirely out of the whipped topping and replaced it with coconut extract.

5) I used both toasted coconut and mini chocolate chips in the garnish on top.

Here is the result!  I think it is quite photogenic.

And it held together quite nicely when sliced.

Over all I really enjoyed this.  However, I think I should have just left the rum out entirely.  I don’t like the taste of alcohol so I thought I’d get by with reducing it, but it left a somewhat difficult to identify flavor in the filling. “Prince Charming” commented that the initial flavor was good, and the after taste was good, but there was a “funny” taste in the middle.  When I identified it as the rum he was ok with it and he did enjoy the dessert – I just think it would have served be better to have committed to leaving it out.  That being said, I do feel that the flavors really came together in the refrigerator and this tart was even better the second night.

I am happy to say that I can unreservedly recommend this week’s recipe – thank you to Beryl for hosting and making such a great selection!