Coconut Cream Pie Cups with an Almond Crust

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, divided Label: coconut, and nothing else, with no sugar or sulfites
• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp allulose, divided Label: allulose, and nothing else
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt, divided
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 3 tbsp cold water
• 2 1/4 tsp (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin Label: gelatin, and nothing else
• 1 can (13.5 oz) full-fat coconut milk, shaken well Label: coconut and water, with no gums or sugar
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided (1/2 cup for the custard, 1 cup cold for the topping) Label: cream, with no gums or carrageenan
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 5 large egg yolks

Instructions

1. Toast the coconut: Toast the shredded coconut in a dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes, until most of it is golden. Tip it onto a plate right away, since the hot skillet keeps toasting it.
2. Make the crust: Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Stir the almond flour, 1/4 cup of the toasted coconut, 2 tablespoons of the allulose, and a pinch of the salt together, then stir in the melted butter until the mixture looks like damp sand and holds together when squeezed. Press a heaping tablespoon into the bottom and a little way up the sides of each liner with the back of a spoon.
3. Bake the crusts: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until golden at the edges, checking at 9 minutes. Allulose browns faster than sugar, and almond flour goes from golden to dark quickly. Let the crusts cool in the tin.
4. Bloom the gelatin: Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a small bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes, until it swells and turns spongy. Hydrated first, it melts smoothly into the warm custard; sprinkled straight in, it clumps.
5. Heat the coconut milk: Warm the coconut milk, 1/2 cup of the cream, the vanilla seeds and pod, and the remaining salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until it steams and small bubbles form at the edge, about 5 minutes.
6. Temper the yolks: Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 1/3 cup of allulose in a bowl until pale. Slowly pour in about 1 cup of the hot coconut milk, whisking constantly, then pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan. Warming the yolks gradually keeps them from setting into curds the moment they meet the heat.
7. Cook the custard: Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula and scraping the bottom and corners, for 4 to 6 minutes, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula and reads 170°F (77°C) on an instant-read thermometer. Keep it below a simmer. Take it off the heat, lift out the vanilla pod, and stir in the bloomed gelatin until it melts completely.
8. Strain and fill: Pour the custard through a fine sieve into a large measuring cup to catch any bits of cooked egg, then stir in another 1/4 cup of the toasted coconut. Let it cool for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, then pour it into the crusts. Refrigerate, uncovered until cold and then covered, for at least 4 hours, until set.
9. Whip the cream and serve: Just before serving, whip the remaining 1 cup of cold heavy cream to soft peaks with a hand mixer or a balloon whisk. Spoon or pipe it onto each cup and sprinkle with the last of the toasted coconut.