Jan 15, 2010
This is my longest review ever... Sorry! I've never had haupia but I had a can of coconut milk in the pantry and this looked like a simple recipe. Upon reading the previous comments, I decided to change up the order just a little. To get a good texture, instead of mixing all of the ingredients in the pot, I separated out 1/2 cup of room-temp coconut milk and whisked in the cornstarch until it was dissolved. In the pot I put the rest of the coconut milk, sugar, and salt and heated it up until the salt and sugar were dissolved, then stirred in the cornstarch mixture. I cooked it at a higher temp (med to med-high) because nothing happened at a low temp (maybe because pot is heavier or because I have a glass cooktop?) I made sure to keep stirring it the whole time so it wouldn't burn, and let it cook until it was pretty thick, to avoid the raw-cornstarch flavor one reviewer mentioned. I sprayed a glass baking dish very lightly with cooking spray (possibly unnecessary) and poured in the mixture. Off to the fridge it went and jsut now I flipped it onto a seving dish. It sliced it into squares easily and had a great taste. It could be sweeter and/or more coconutty, for more of a desserty feel, but it is great and I will be taking it to dinner this evening at the house of a friend whose son is allergic to milk and gluten!
—Carla