A traditional chocolate haupia (coconut) pie that is very popular in Hawaii – get a taste of paradise with this very easy dessert!
One of the bakeries that Addie and I visited while our in-laws (and my husband) were golfing was this wonderful place called Leoda’s Kitchen and Pie Shop. This place was packed for a Friday morning. Luckily, there was a separate take-out line where we could place our orders and go. Even the take-out section had a line.
Addie and I got two pies – one to share and one to let my husband try. We got a fantastic pineapple macadamia nut one for my husband that we ended up eating as part of our lunch during the trip home. The pie that Addie and I ate in the restaurant was a chocolate haupia (coconut) one. It was smooth, creamy, and bursting with coconut flavor.
I’ve made a chocolate haupia pie before but it has been a few years. After returning back to the Mainland, I wanted to recreate this beautiful dessert so we could enjoy Hawaii once more.
The pie is very simple to put together. You bake a pie crust (you can totally use a pre-made crust here), make some pudding and then chill everything. The pudding comes together very easily, and you just add melted chocolate to half of it. Then top with whipped cream or shredded coconut and you’re done.
I did reduce the sugar in the recipe below because I found that the original version was too sweet. I know – this is a dessert blog so sugar should be my friend, but it needed to be toned down a bit for this pie. I’ve adjusted it below so it should still be sweet but not so much that it would make your teeth hurt.
Enjoy, and Happy Mother’s Day!
Hawaiian chocolate haupia (coconut) pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed If you use salted butter, please omit the salt from the previous bullet point
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water
Pie filling
- 1 cup milk of choice I used 1%
- 1 14 ounce can coconut milk
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1 cup water
- 1 and 1/4 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt together until well blended. Add in the butter and pulse until it resembles wet crumbs. Then slowly stream in the water until a dough comes together. You can also do this by hand and knead everything together. Just be careful not to overwork the dough.
- Roll the dough out into a circle and place in a 10" pie pan. Put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the crust in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the crust starts to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- While the crust is cooling, make the filling.
- In a medium sized saucepan, mix the milk, coconut milk and sugar together. Turn on the stove and allow the mixture to boil.
- While the mixture is warming up, dissolve the corn starch in the 1 cup of water and set aside.
- Once the coconut mixture has started to boil, turn down the heat to low and slowly stream in the corn starch mixture. Keep mixing until everything becomes thick and pudding-like, about 3 minutes.
- While the coconut mixture is thickening, melt the chocolate chips in a medium sized bowl. Pour half of the coconut mixture into the bowl with the melted chocolate and mix well. Set aside.
- Once the pie crust has cooled down, spread the chocolate pudding on top. Even out the top. Then add the plain coconut pudding on top. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
- If desired, you can top with whipped cream and/or shredded coconut.