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If you're nuts for coconut AND dulce de leche then you've come to the perfect place.
Today's recipe that I'll be sharing is an Argentine style coconut and dulce de leche tart. Imagine flaky crust with generous layer of delicious dulce de leche and topped with aromatic golden brown bits of coconut.
I don't know about you but I imagined a heaven!
Let's dive straight into the heaven please!
Argentine And Dulce De Leche
My husband is Argentine and mark my words, no Argentine is born without a heart fond of dulce de leche. Maybe some were even born with a jar of dulce de leche in their hand.
I only get to know and of course, fallen in love with dulce de leche through my husband. And yes, dulce de leche is the heart of today's recipe.
If you're not familiar with what the heck of this dulce de leche that I'm talking about, you can read about it in my post on how to make dulce de leche.
I got this recipe from my husband, of course. He absolutely loves it and I'm excited that I get to share it with you today.
Before I forget about the dulce de leche, I would like to remind you that for this recipe I'm using bakers dulce de leche. The consistency is different from the regular one. This one is thicker and is often used as fillings for cakes, pastries and more.
So when you're making this tart, make sure to use bakers one. The reason being is so that it holds its shape and texture very good while baking.
Sweet Childhood Memories
Marco mentioned that he eats this coconut tart for as long as he can remember.
It's a famous dessert in Argentina. Not as famous as pasta frola, he said, but this tart is something that he remembers enjoying since he was a kid.
You can find this coconut and dulce de leche tart in most Argentine bakeries. I'm not so much into sweets but this tart really got me. And it got me really good!
The combination of coconut and dulce de leche is just so perfect.
The other day when we went to our local ice cream shop, Marco even chose coconut and dulce de leche flavours because they remind him of this tart.
Give this amazing tart a try, I promise you that you'll enjoy it!
In Summary
This Argentine style coconut and dulce de leche tart is:
- a must try for all dulce de leche lovers out there
- and also not forgetting the coconut lovers please
- easy to prepare
- with flaky crust, generous later of dulce de leche and golden brown bits of coconut
- so DELICIOUS that it's difficult to stop munching on it!
Hungry For More?
Here are more dulce de leche treats for you:
- Classic Argentine alfajores
- Ricotta pie with dulce de leche
- No-bake nutella and dulce de leche cheesecake
Video
📖 Recipe
Coconut & Dulce de leche Tart
Video
Ingredients
The Crust
- ½ cup butter (113 g), room temperature
- 3 tablespoon sugar (35 g)
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- zest of ½ lemon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour (195 g)
The Filling
- ⅔ cup sugar (130 g)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup whipping cream, min 35% fat (160 ml)
- 3 cup unsweetened fine desiccated coconut (240 g)
- 1 lb bakers dulce de leche (450 g), or to your liking
Instructions
The Crust
- Add both butter and sugar into a bowl and mix well using a spatula. Now add in egg, lemon zest, vanilla extract and continue mixing.
- Finally add in flour and fold everything together to combine, don't over mix it. You will have a sticky dough, no worries.
- Place dough on a cling film, wrap and flatten it into ½ inch (1.3 cm) thickness. Place it in the freezer for 20 minutes or until it stiffened enough to manage. Meanwhile, let's prepare the filling.
The Filling
- Into another bowl, add in sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. Now add in whipping cream and mix well. Finally add in desiccated coconut and give it one final mix.
- Chill in the fridge for 40 minutes.
Assembling
- After 20 minutes, place the stiff dough in between 2 cling films. Roll into a circle that's slightly bigger than 9 inch (23 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom.
- Remove the top cling film and sprinkle some flour on the dough. Swiftly and confidently flip the dough into the tart pan, floured side down. Rearrange the dough as you need and cut off the excess bits.
- Place back in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the freezer and pipe the dulce de leche in. Use an offset spatula to even it out. Now pipe the filling on top, making sure to cover all the dulce de leche surface.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350ºF (175ºC) on the lowest rack for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely before slicing (you'll get a cleaner cut) and enjoy! Note: Serve this with mate (Argentine herb tea) for maximum enjoyment!
Freezer Or Fridge (not to get confused)
- Freezer is where you keep the frozen things.
- Fridge is where you keep all your fresh veggies, milk and etc.
Notes
- Use fine-textured desiccated coconut. Coarse ones will make it difficult to pipe later.
- Use whipping cream that's not whipped, or else your filling will be too dry.
- Make sure to chill the filling in the fridge so that the desiccated coconut has the time to absorb the liquid and gets "firmer" to pipe later.
- If your filling is still runny, leave it in the fridge for a few minutes longer (refer to the tutorial video above for the final texture).
Elaine Brown says
I made this tart yesterday and sampled it this morning--it's wonderfully yummy!
I used a 10" tart pan and scaled up ingredients 25%. I purchased cans of "Eagle Brand Dulce de Leche", warmed it upon the cooktop, added a slurry of cornstarch & cold milk, let it bubble for a few minutes to activate the cornstarch, then let it cool. The purpose of this was to thicken/stabilize the dulce de leche so it would be closer to the "repostera" version.
A question for Bea and Marco: How do you store this tart? On the counter, covered? In the fridge, covered? And how long would it keep under either scenario?
It's seriously delicious. Thank you.
Elaine Brown says
I am interested in making this recipe. A few questions:
1. I have a 10" tart pan, but your recipe specifies a 9" pan. I can scale up ingredients, but do you have any idea how well your recipe might adapt to a larger size pan?
2. You provided a link to making dulce de leche, thank you. Does your recipe produce the "baker's" version required for this recipe?
Bea & Marco says
Hi Elaine! Yes, this recipe should adapt well to a 10-inch tart pan, provided it’s roughly the same depth. Scale all the ingredients by 1.25 to keep the tart close to the original thickness. Bake it at the same temperature and begin checking around 45 minutes. It’s ready when the top is golden brown.
And yes, the homemade dulce de leche linked in the post is thicker than regular dulce de leche and works well for this tart. Hope you enjoy it!
Karen Luse says
I loved this recipe, but for the life of me, I could not use the start tip to make that pretty pattern on my tart. The coconut kept getting stuck. Any help?
Bea says
Ahh sorry to hear that, Karen! Perhaps you could try using a bigger-sized tip? There are different sizes and maybe yours is a tad small. If not, you could just put the filling in a piping bag, cut the tip of the bag and pipe away. Hope it helps and thanks for your feedback!
Eric says
wow! Awesome desert.
I misinterpreted the recipe and did not whip the cream before blending it with the coconut and eggs. I poured it in anyway and baked and it was fine. not as impressive visually, but not bad at all. The taste was great.
Thank you
Bea says
Happy to know that it worked out anyways for you and that you liked it. When something I make doesn't look so great, I'd announce it as "rustic". Haha! Because what matters is the taste, right? Thanks for your feedback, Eric!
Isabel says
Perhaps because it says whipping cream, not whipped cream. I made the same mistake.
Bea & Marco says
Hi Isabel! It is whipping cream (without whipped), you can refer to the texture in the tutorial video above. If your filling is runny, place it longer in the fridge. Use a large tip to avoid the coconut getting stuck. Hope it helps!
Samantha says
Hello, I'm planning to make this recipe, but just had a few questions. Is it possible to replace the ap flour with gluten free flour? Do the tart shells need to be prebaked? I've never made a tart before (just read a lot of recipes), but most that I've read use cold butter, is there a reason why the butter is softened? Is it a different pastry/taste? Is it possible to replace the dulce de leche with Kaya? (I'm a Singaporean living in Spain) 🙂 thanks
Bea says
Hi! This recipe wasn't made for gluten-free flour, sorry though. You can see the detailed instructions in the recipe section above. Not all recipes are made the same, this is how I make the tart shells. And yes, no problem in putting Kaya. Hope it helps! 😊.
Bridget says
Can you recommend some brands of baker's dulce du leche? I'm going to have to get some from Amazon. There are lots of choices, but I haven't found one clearly labeled for baking.
Thanks!
Bridget
Bea says
This is the one I used in this recipe https://amzn.to/2pcnk4h and I like it. It needs to say "pastelero" or "repostero", those are the ones for baking. You can also make your own dulce de leche following this method https://www.elmundoeats.com/how-to-make-dulce-de-leche/ and the result is similar to the baker's one.
Mónica says
No la he hecho aún pero esa combinación de coco y dulce de leche se ve exquisita.
Bea says
Te la recomiendo 100%! Es una delicia 🙂
Sean says
Made it and it was damn delicious!
Thank you ma'am.
Bea says
Yeay! Happy to hear that, thank you Sean! 😀
Leonardo says
Hola Bea, esta muy chula tu web. por otro lado intente hacer con el relleno de coco ese tipo de montañas y se me han desaparecido en el horno, que pudo ser, las imaginaba iguales. bueno un slaudo, felicitaciones por la web, adelante con ella que se necesita mucho esfuerzo, os felicito a ambos y al equipos por el trabajo.! un abrazo saludos desde Colombia Sur America
Bea says
Hola Leonardo! Pusiste el relleno en la nevera? Lo más probable es que le faltara tiempo para hidratarse el coco y así no ser tan líquido. Gracias y un saludo grande!
Ovi says
Hi..i m Ovi from Indonesia
How make dulce de leche?
Bea says
Hi Ovi, you can see how to make it here https://www.elmundoeats.com/how-to-make-dulce-de-leche/
Jaya says
I m Jaya from India. Awesome combination!! Both are my favorites.. made your tiramisu cheesecake for a party the before day and it was hit!!
Will Make this for the next party.. but how to store this in the fridge and how long does it stays good? Bcos I used to make desserts the previous day of any party
Bea says
Thanks Jaya! Yes you can store it in the fridge for a couple days, that's what I always do with the balance. Hope it helps.