As someone who bakes for a coconut lover, I was delighted to learn of a Hawaiian dessert called Chocolate Haupia Pie. The pie gets its name from a popular coconut dessert called haupia. While it's usually served in squares by itself, in this version it's used as a pie filling. Half of the haupia is flavored with chocolate and half is left as coconut, then it's layered in a crust and topped with whipped cream. And it is so good! It's funny because I made it just to use up some frozen pastry dough, and already want to make this wonderful chocolate coconut pie again!
Jump to Recipe
What Does Haupia Mean?
Haupia is an interesting word so I just had to look up the meaning. "Hau" means cool and "pia" is actually a type of Polynesian arrowroot, a starchy tuber. So the word means something like a cool arrowroot type dessert. And that's what it's like -- a dessert that looks like a cold and creamy gelatin, but made with a starch. Also, it's pronounced "how-pee-uh". In my mind I kept thinking of it has "hop-pia" like a little bunny. All that being said, it seems pia is not used so much these days and most recipes just call for cornstarch.
Chocolate Haupia Pie Steps
Making Chocolate Haupia Pie is very simple. You make a slurry of cornstarch and water and set it aside. Next, you boil coconut milk, whole milk and sugar, then thicken with your slurry. You then divide that mixture in half and add chocolate to half and extracts to the other half. The chocolate filling thickens pretty quickly, but the white filling will feel very loose and runny. But no worries! It will gel quite a bit as it chills. Here's what mine looked like after about six hours. I was impressed with how it firmed up. Now about that crust...
Crust for Haupia Pie
I'd love to try this with a graham cracker crust, but as mentioned I had pastry dough in the freezer, so I blind-baked it for a flaky, buttery, salty crust. It shrank quite a bit which made it too small to hold all of the filling, but it was still a great pie. Now I'm thinking next time I have half a can of coconut milk, I'll try it again with a Keebler crust. The Keebler crusts are so small I think they'd be perfect for a half batch.
Sweetness Level and Thoughts on Flavor
I'm not a huge coconut fan, but I liked this a lot. On Allrecipes there's a very similar chocolate coconut pie which some people find overly sweet. I thought it was sweet, but just right. I would be sure to use a 60-70% chocolate for the chocolate layer, and I recommend putting a little OVER half into the chocolate so that you have a slightly larger layer of chocolate filling than coconut-vanilla. All of the flavors plus that sweetened whipped cream just work so well together.
Freezing Haupia Pie
After we ate our first piece, I froze the rest and cut the frozen pie into large sections. I wrapped most of them and thawed out two to check the texture. It seems to freeze well. As it thaws there's some seepage near the crust, but it wasn't a huge issue. Ideally, you should probably make and chill the pie the first day, add the whipped cream on day 2 and serve shortly after topping with the whipped cream. But based on my experience, it seems to freeze well.
An Easy Pie and a Fun Hawaiian Dessert
If you need an easy pie or a Hawaiian dessert, look no further. The recipe calls for pantry staples (for the most part) along with freshly whipped cream. No eggs required. If you are a Cool Whip fan, you could save some time and use that instead of freshly whipped cream.
Ingredient Rundown
- Crust -- I used a buttery pastry dough and blind-baked.
- Cornstarch -- It's important to get the amount just right. I used 56 grams which is about ⅓ cup plus a tablespoon or a little less than ½ cup.
- Coconut Milk -- I used Native Forest brand. It has a clean coconut flavor.
- Water vs. Milk -- Some recipes give an option ot use 1 cup of milk in place of the cold water that goes in the slurry and in the coconut filling. I used water in the slurry and whole milk in the filling. If you are making a vegan version, almond milk would probably work well in both parts.
- Sugar, a full cup! Again, I didn't find it too sweet, but I might try it with less one day just to experiment.
- Salt -- helps tame all that sugar.
- Dark Chocolate -- Lots of versions use chocolate chips which are fine. I keep Trader Joe's dark chocolate bars around so I used that. You could use 70% for a slightly less sweet chocolate layer, and if you want less chocolate intensity you can go with half the amount. Six oz was fine.
- Coconut and Vanilla Flavorings -- McCormick coconut extract and Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste (which why my pie has little flecks in it).
- Whipped Cream -- If making this vegan you could use one of the dairy free vegan whipped toppings and save a step. I just used fresh whipped cream sweetened with sugar and flavored with vanilla.
Recipe
Chocolate Haupia Pie
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch baked pastry crust or graham crust
Cornstarch Slurry
- 1 cup cold water (230 grams)
- ⅓ cup plus a tablespoons of cornstarch, weigh 56 grams or measure with a light hand** (56 grams)
Haupia Filling
- 1 cup milk (230 grams)
- 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1 pinch salt
- 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped (170 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract or more vanilla
Sweetened Whipped Cream
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Toasted coconut for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Have ready a cooled 9-inch deep dish crust.
- In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, combine cold water and cornstarch and whisk to make a slurry.
- In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the 1 cup of whole milk, can of coconut milk, and sugar and bring to a simmer. When it is simmering, whisk the cornstarch slurry again, then whisk it into the simmering mixture. Whisk until thickened. This should take about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Set a clean bowl on the scale, set the tare to zero and pour about 18 oz of the mixture (around half, but a little under) into the clean bowl. You can also just eyeball it if you’d rather.
- Add the chocolate to the saucepan with the remaining coconut mixture. Set over low heat and whisk just until the chocolate is fully melted.
- Stir 1 teaspoon of coconut extract and ½ teaspoon vanilla into the bowl with the white coconut mixture, then stir ½ teaspoon of vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Let both mixtures cool for about 5 minutes.
- Spread the chocolate mixture evenly in the pie crust. The coconut mixture will still be a little cool and runny at this point, so you may want to let it cool for another 10 minutes. Carefully spoon it over the chocolate mixture. It will not be stiff or very thick at this point.
- Cover and chill for 6 hours.
Whipped Cream Topping
- After 6 hours, prepare sweetened whipped cream. Whip the cream until stiff peaks start to form, then sweeten with sugar and flavor with vanilla. Spread or pipe the whipped cream topping over the coconut mixture.
Fuzz says
I need to make this! Time to get some coconut extract!!!