I’m back in Hawaii enjoying the warm weather and time with family. I’m also, as always, enjoying the foods I can’t get on the mainland. Getting together for dinner with family last week I offered to make a dessert, one that I was craving and had a general idea of how to make. I figured I’d test it out on them.

The dessert I wanted was Chocolate Haupia Pie. One of the best places to get it is Ted’s Bakery on Oahu’s North Shore. Just like the Strawberry Pie from Anna Miller’s the recipe is a closely held secret and one that I didn’t have a chance even coming close to replicating. In the back of my head I knew that if my version didn’t work out, I could always run to the market to pick up a real Ted’s pie and call it a day.

My first deviation from the Ted’s pie was to forgo the regular round shape and standard pie crust and instead make a shortbread crust in a 9″ x 13″ pan. I used the crust and haupia layer from the Okinawan Sweet Potato and Haupia Pie recipe as a guide and made some minor adjustments. And yes I used a Hawaiian brand of coconut milk just because I’m here but any good quality will do.

Once those two layers were set, I admit that I was lazy and used instant chocolate pudding. I may try this again in the future and make a real pudding layer. This one turned out well but I’m betting it would taste even better with the real thing.

Finally, to top it I whipped some heavy cream. And yes, maybe because I was feeling a little bit guilty about using instant pudding, I whipped the cream by hand.

I grated some bittersweet chocolate over the top to tjuz it up a bit. The result was something that looked like a giant Hawaiian tiramisu 🙂 

We were happy with the results. There’s less than a quarter of the pie left. Next time I think I might try it with a traditional pie crust and with a homemade chocolate pudding layer. If that version works out, I’ll post that too.

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