Buco Pie

My sister M came to me last Friday with a special request. She wanted to bake buco pie with me--she said she was going to be home on Monday because it was a holiday here in the Philippines. Everytime any of my sisters or brothers come to me with a request that combines two of my favorite things (family and baking) I always cave in.

Buco is the meat of a young coconut. It's widely available in markets here in the Philippines. Buco pie is a staple dessert in many of the restaurants here. Some are really good while the others are filled with cornstarch thickened goo with a few pieces of buco meat. My sister asked me to make this recipe which they did in Home Economics class (...I miss highschool) This one is promising because it doesnt contain cornstarch at all and there's lots of buco meat :)

BUCO PIE

crust:

All-purpose Flour 3 cups

Salt 1 1/2 teaspoon

Shortening 3/4 cup (I used real butter)

Water, iced 1/3 cup

Sift all purpose flour, set aside. Dissolve salt in water. Cut butter into small pieces and cut into flour. Rub butter between hands and continue until butter is the size of peas (I'm making a mealy pie dough). Add water, do not knead dough. Just combine until dough comes together. Pat into a disc and wrap with wax paper. Refrigerate while making pie filling.

filling:

Buco meat 2 cups

Granulated Sugar 3/4 cup

All-purpose Flour 1/2 cup

Coconut water 1/2 cup

Evaporated milk 1/2 cup

Dissolve sugar in Coconut water, Add flour and continue whisking, pour in evaporated milk. Whisk until no lumps remain, transfer to a pot and cook over medium heat stirring the bottom of the pan with a silicone spatula. Cook until thick about 5 minutes. Add in buco meat and continue for another 5 minutes until very thick. Take off heat and cool.

Divide dough. Roll out half of dough into 1/4 inch thick round. Making sure dough does not stick to bottom by moving it. Dough has to be rolled out from the middle outwards. Carefully lift dough and drop carefully onto prepared pie pan. Do not pull sides. Pat to adhere to sides. Pour in cooled filling.

At this point you can decorate the top of the pie any way you want. I made mine a lattice. I rolled out the remaining pie dough and cut it into equal sized strips

and made a lattice design for my top crust. Brush with egg wash and bake in a preheated 350 degrees farenheit oven for 40 minutes.