Forum

The other day I found a new product while shopping at an asian market, and I'm really excited to find new ways to use it.  It's called coconut jam, and it's a Filipino product (made by Quezon) which is a glorious and simple combination of coconut milk and muscovado sugar that is made into a sort of dulce de leche, however it's hard right out of the jar.  It's unbelievably good straight from the jar and spread on warm toast, but I'm having a hard time finding some other recipes which use it!  I just KNOW it could be a great baking ingredient and I plan on experimenting with it, but I wonder if any of you are familiar with this ingredient and have used it in any untraditional ways?

Filipino coconut jam is apparently different from other Southeast Asian versions of "coconut jam" or "coco jam".  Malaysian or Singaporean coconut jam is also called "kaya" and it is more of a curd because it's made with eggs.  This stuff isn't creamy like the Singaporean version and it has some sugar crystals which make it gritty, but it melts nicely.  It tastes like the essence of coconut balanced with the mineral sweetness of muscovado sugar.

This being an international group of food lovers, I have to believe that some of you out there are familiar with it!  Got any advice for me?  This is what I've come up with so far:

-add it to rice pudding or custard based sweet things

-spread on the crust of a tart before topping with fruit

-add to ganache or filling for sandwich cookies

That ingredient sounds soooo yummy!  I'll have to look for it next time I go to the local Asian market.  Thanks for the tip!

Bonnie

Bonnie, it really is about as deliciously simple as a packaged product can get, I think.  Literally two ingredients, and you can really taste both.

robm, thanks for your great input!  I love the idea of using it in dessert crepes.  It would be great with any number of other add-ins too!  I've heard about but never eaten an alfajore, but I bet you're right that the extra coconut flavor would blend well.  The hurdle to get over with most of the ideas I can come up with is to make it into a caramel of sorts.  Right now it's a little reminiscent of maple candy or cold maple cream, if you've ever had that.  At room temp or from the fridge, you can actually scrape it off the top.  But when it hits your tongue, it melts.

I'd love to try it as a filling for sweet buns or pecan rolls, and I think the sugar would melt into the pastry nicely without having to fuss with making a caramel from the coconut jam.

I'm going to experiment with melting it into a small amount of hot coconut milk to see if I can melt the sugar crystals and make it jammy without diluting the flavor much.  If I can do that, there'll be endless possibilities.