Gizzada Pie

3.14  

Gizzada is a Jamaican coconut tart. It's usually made in little pastry rounds about the size of your palm. I decided that I would try my hand at a giant gizzada, essentially turning it into a huge gizzada pie. I mean what’s the difference between a tart and a pie anyway, depth?

I’m not going to lie to you, this is not an easy pie. Not because of the ingredients, but because of the way the coconut needs to be shredded. The problem is gizzada requires a very specific texture. It needs coconut that is shredded to a powdery, trashy almost flour-like mixture that still contains all its milk and moisture. Think of the pulp that is left over from carrots after you put them through a juicer. It requires shredding by hand with a traditional Jamaican old school grater. Point, blank, period. Every other method of creating the texture I tried failed.

1. A food processor will not cut it, you will end up with very small coconut cubes some will be shredded, but most will be little cubes chunks that cant do anything but make 'drops'
2. Shredded coconut flakes from the grocery store natural or sweetened will not cut it, the flavor will be completely off, the texture will be completely off, and anyone who says otherwise is not Jamaican.
3. A blender will not cut it, blenders tend to separate the liquid from the coconut and you still end up with tiny coconut cubes just like the food processor. The only way the blender would work is if you added water (and we are not trying to make a soup, so that’s a no)
4. And don’t even bother using a juicer, that gets the texture, but then it separates with coconut flesh from the milk which it needs, and even if you combine the milk and the trash back together, the fibers just don’t absorb it in the same way and then you have a dirty mixer and soggy coconut pulp.

You must get the coconut out of the hard husk. A dull knife is the easiest thing to use to crack it open. Get yourself and old-fashioned Jamaican grater. The same one used to get sweet potato to the perfect texture for pudding. The grater is probably the most dangerous thing on earth. Your knuckles are at risk for being shredded right off. Use extreme care when shredding the coconut. With that said the results are worth it. And the pie was pretty good for my first try. Next time I would just do a thicker bottom crust and probably a top crust. My crust to filling ratio was off, still yummy though.

Ingredients (printable recipe )

2 prepared pastry crusts

2 whole dry coconuts (4 cups shredded coconut)

1 ½ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 ½ teaspoon Cinnamon

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

Instructions

For the coconut filling

• Shred the coconut
• Mix with sugar, salt, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger
• Mix together and allow it to sit for 2 to 3 hours to allow the sugar to naturally completely dissolve into the coconut and its milk (optional)
• Place the coconut mixture in a pot on extremely low heat and allow it to steam for 20 minutes stirring occasionally
• Allow the mixture to completely cool to room temp

to bake

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
• Roll out the bottom pie crust and place in a pie dish, cut off any excess edges.
• Place in the refrigerator
• Fill the bottom pie crust with fruit filling,
• Do any kind of braiding or floral pattern you like with the top crust and place over the coconut filling
• Beat the egg and milk together and brush the crust sprinkle with sugar and bake for an hour
• After about 30 minutes I rest a piece of foil over top lightly just to prevent the top from over browning
• Remove from the oven after an hour and allow to completely cool for 5 hours before slicing
• This allows it to set. Overnight is best but at least 5 hours

Greedy tips: 

• see the link here for a good pie crust

XOXO Greedygirl