Coconut Chocolate Custard Pie with Cardamom Rose Piima Cream

YUM! Another Gluten Free Success!! This is one is ALMOST dairy free as well, but not quite, because the Piima cultured cream was made with raw cream from local cows, but if you can find a suitable dairy free cream substitute, it can be DF to boot. Coconut milk might work, if you get the creamy stuff off the top of the can, without the liquid, or cultured coconut milk might be firm enough.

Anyway, I made this little concoction for a dinner/bbq with some friends this weekend. She cooked a big, delicious fish, greek salad, quinoa, and other great nummy stuff. I offered to bring a sweet treat for after dinner. We had talked about cocoa and coconut oil fudge, but I felt like being more creative.

So...Coconut Chocolate Custard, Rose Cardamom Piima Cream, and a Walnut Date Crust.
Custard:
8 oz Coconut milk
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
4 oz ( or more if you like) dark, bittersweet baking chocolate ( I used green and blacks 72%)
1 pinch cardamom powder
2 pinches vanilla powder or a tsp of vanilla extract

CUSTARD
To make a custard melt the chocolate and spices into the coconut milk. Whisk together eggs and sugar. Over a bain marie, or water bath. Slowly add the coconut milk to the egg mixture and mix briskly, constantly. Over the water bath the eggs should cook into a thick custard, but you must stir constantly to avoid stringy or clumpy custard. When sufficiently thick ( about 15-20 min) remove from heat and set in the fridge to cool.

CRUST
Blend in a food processor 12 walnuts and 4-6 soaked dates, and a tsp of salt into a thick paste. Press firmly into a pie tin, or as I did, a clean cast iron pan. Refridgerate to firm up.

ROSE CARDAMOM CREAM
While custard and crust are cooling, mix up the cream. I used a cultured Piima cream, which is slightly sour, like yogurt, but milder. Sour cream, creme fraiche, or other dairy free type creamy thing could be used.
I used about a cup of cream, and added 2 tbsp rose gulkand, a delicious Indian jam made from fresh rose petals and raw sugar, and about a tsp of freshly ground cardamom seed. Stir well and then set in the fridge to cool and firm up and let the flavors blend.

To assemble pie:
Pour the cooled custard into the crust and spread evenly. Top decoratively with the piima cream with roses and cardamom. Garnish with cardamom pods, rose buds, and toasted coconut shreds.
Keep the pie cool until ready to serve. It is kind of a soft custard with the coconut milk, so serving it is a might challenging, but despite the falling apart, it tastes just divine! Truly food of the gods, Chocolate, and Cultured cream....ambrosia. Plus the sensual and arousing roses and cardamom might spark some other delicious fun!



Be sure to share this pie with your loved ones! It will disappear in one sitting!

YUMMY!!!