Stumped by Coco Lopez

My two favorite recipes for Rico lopez were pina coloda bread pudding at Bahamas Breeze, and coconut shrimp and dipping sauce from red lobster. Both recipes should still be on the internet or available from Darden, if not and you are interested, let me know and I will find them and post them for you. I would now, but I am in a mobile phone and don't have the recipes handy. Good luck! Enjoy!

I know you said you're not a fan of sweet drinks like Pina Coladas; but what about sweet non-alcoholic drinks? Have mixed Coco Lopez with ice, honeydew melon, and fresh mint, in the food processor or blender, and it makes a really delicious, decadent smoothy-type drink appropriate to serve at a brunch. People lose their minds over this, so even if it's not your thing, your guests may just solve your Coco Lopez problem for you!

Hi!
I make a 'doctored cake mix' coconut pound cake with canned coconut cream. Here's the recipe-
Coconut Velvet Pound Cake with Key Lime Glaze
1 18.25-oz.) pkg. white cake mix
1/4 cup oil or butter, melted & cooled
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 can coconut cream (400 mls)

Key Lime Glaze-
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice

Heat oven to 325°F. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl, combine cake mix, coconut cream, oil or butter, 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract & eggs; beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at high speed. Pour batter into sprayed pan. Bake at 325°F. for 55 to 65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert cake onto serving plate.
To make glaze: when cake has cooled mix lime juice & powdered sugar until well blended, drizzle over cake.

I have also used the coco Lopez in my coconut cake by reducing the fat and sugar. A second can can be used for the icing instead of the butter. Just use the CL and powdered sugar. I top with toasted SHAVED coconut.

I recently made a coconut cake. Instead of the water or milk, I used a combo 4 parts coconut milk and 1 part cocoa lopez in a yellow cake recipe. Made the cake taste like coconut and the whole house smelled like coconut while it was baking.

You could use more cocoa lopez but would have to reduce sugar elsewhere. You could do this with a cake mix, too.

My impression of Coco Lopez is there is a reason why you "inherited" it from your neighbor. Usually when something is over-salted-or-sweetened it is to cover up lack of quality (and it does have added sugar AND salt, among the 11 other ingredients besides coconut). Someone bought me a can by accident when I asked for coconut milk one day. The contents sat in my freezer for weeks until I finally gathered up the courage to toss it.

Sorry to be such a snob. If you try it and don't mind the taste, then use it. But if you don't like the stuff, better in the trash can than in your body.

If you make the pie let us know how it goes, i would love to know. The Thai custard sounds amazing too! Maybe some lemongrass in it would be really nice.

A Thai custard sounds great - I've made lots of Thai curries, etc...but never a Thai dessert before. Thanks for the site rec too.

And re: the pie - coconut whipped cream, coconut/lime filling, coconut crust - my husband will think I'm being nice by making him a key lime pie, when I'm really making myself a coconut-orgy. Ssshh....

Who knew those pesky little cans of Coco Lopez would be so inspiring?

I think that you could thin the coco lopez a bit with some coconut milk or heavy cream so that its the consistency of sweetened condensed milk, and you read my mind on the flaked coconut, I also thought that if you use whipped cream on the pie instead of sugar add a tbs or two of coco lopez to sweeten it and top with toasted flaked coconut. I love the idea of adding coconut to the graham cracker crust. Its all an experiment really have never done this before but the coco lopez is thick and sweet and I think it would set nicely with the lime juice and make a really nice pie.

Here's another thought. I'm not sure how Coco Lopez compares to Thai coconut creams. I'm sure it's a whole lot sweeter. But you might look at Thai recipes, like this one for coconut egg custard, just cutting down the sugar a lot. http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/sangkaya.html

It's from Kasma Loha-unchit's site. She is one of the greats.

Yeah, I did do a few searches - and also saw the Coco Lopez site's recipes. Nothing really grabbed me. But the CI coconut cake looks good...must ponder. Thx.

sdebrango, I like the key lime pie idea. It's my husband's favorite and I haven't made one in a while...maybe I could add some toasted flaked coconut to the graham cracker crust as well, to up the coconut quotient.

You can also search recipe sites for "cream of coconut" and see what you come up with. I used cream of coconut for making the Cook's Illustrated recipe for coconut cake.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=%22cream+of+coconut%22&fnSearchType=site

The Coco Lopez website has some suggestions for recipes, including breads, main dishes, and sides. It might be a good leaping off spot. http://www.cocolopez.com/recipes.html

Maybe you can tweak a key lime pie recipe to accomodate the coco lopez. You usually use sweetened condensed milk for a key lime pie and lime and coconut go beautifully together so you could make a key lime coconut pie. Just a thought. I have never used coco lopez before for anything but drinks.