Haupia Recipe — Traditional Hawaiian Coconut Pudding

Haupia is the chilled coconut pudding cut into small white squares at most Hawaiian luaus. Four ingredients, twenty minutes at the stove, three hours in the fridge. The recipe below makes a firm, cleanly slicing pan with the wobble it should have.

Ingredients (makes one 8x8 pan, about 16 squares)

• 1 can (13.5 oz) unsweetened full-fat coconut milk. Use a brand with no added gums or stabilizers. Chaokoh, Aroy-D, and Mae Ploy are reliable.
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• Pinch of salt

That's it. Four ingredients plus salt. Any recipe that calls for vanilla, gelatin, butter, or "coconut extract" is a different dessert.

Steps

1. Prep the pan. Lightly butter an 8x8 baking dish or line it with parchment leaving a slight overhang. The haupia will release cleanly either way.
2. Mix the slurry. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the whole milk until completely smooth. No lumps. Set aside.
3. Warm the coconut milk. Pour the coconut milk into a medium saucepan. Add the sugar and salt. Heat over medium, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot but not boiling, about 4 minutes.
4. Add the slurry. Stir the cornstarch slurry one more time (it settles fast) and pour it into the warm coconut milk in a slow, steady stream while whisking constantly. Keep whisking.
5. Cook until thick. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, whisking the whole time. The mixture will go from thin to thick in about 3 to 5 minutes. Once it starts to bubble at the surface and coats the back of a spoon thickly, cook for one more full minute to set the starch, then remove from heat.
6. Pour and set. Pour immediately into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Let it cool to room temperature on the counter (about 30 minutes), then refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Overnight is better.
7. Cut and serve. Once fully chilled, the haupia will be firm enough to cut cleanly. Slice into squares, traditionally about 2 inches. Serve cold.

Notes from making this at home

Coconut milk is the whole flavor, so use a good can. The "lite" coconut milk in cardboard cartons is too thin and the haupia will not set firmly enough to hold a square. You want the full-fat can with a thick cream layer on top. Shake it before opening, or scoop the cream and pour the liquid separately and combine in the pan.

The texture should slice cleanly but still wobble slightly. Not bouncy like Jell-O, not soupy. If it comes out too soft, you cooked it too short. If it is rubbery or sliceable like cheese, you cooked it too long. The minute-after-thickening rule is the timing that gets it right.

Once chilled and cut, haupia keeps covered in the fridge for 3 days. It does not freeze well. The texture breaks down.

Where it comes from

Haupia has long been part of traditional Hawaiian food. The old method used fresh coconut milk thickened with pia, the starch of the Polynesian arrowroot (Tacca leontopetaloides), which is where the name comes from.

Modern haupia uses cornstarch in place of arrowroot. Pia is hard to find outside of cultural-food projects, and cornstarch gives the same set. It also shows up as the white layer in a chocolate haupia cream pie, the dessert Ted's Bakery on Oʻahu's North Shore is best known for.

Where to try the real thing in Hawaii

• Ted's Bakery, Sunset Beach (Oʻahu) — the chocolate haupia cream pie is the one to order. North Shore stop, worth working into a turtle-watching day (tedsbakery.com).
• Most luaus in the islands — haupia squares are a common buffet-line dessert. Our luau guide covers the major ones across all four islands.
• Big Island Candies, Hilo — they carry haupia-flavored shortbread and chocolate-dipped haupia, sold individually or in gift boxes (bigislandcandies.com).

If you want the specific haupia-pie spots: Oʻahu, Maui, Big Island, and Kauaʻi.