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1
Heat the oven to 170 °C. Brush each ramekin thoroughly with softened butter, then dust with caster sugar, tapping out the excess. A thin, even coating on all interior surfaces is required.
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2
Combine the sugar and softened butter in a bowl and work together until the butter is fully incorporated. Add the egg yolks — no whites — one at a time, mixing steadily after each addition. The mixture should be uniformly deep orange-gold; any pale streaks indicate insufficient mixing.
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3
Fold the freshly grated coconut into the yolk mixture until evenly distributed. Pass the entire batter through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean jug, pressing gently. The strained batter must be smooth and free of any egg-protein threads or foam — a pitted surface on the finished quindim is the consequence of skipping this step. This is where the dish lives or dies: an unstrained batter will never yield the unbroken, jewel-like gloss that identifies a properly made quindim.
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4
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared ramekins, filling each to just below the rim. Set the ramekins in a deep roasting tray and pour boiling water into the tray until the ramekins are half-submerged. Insufficient depth produces hot spots and a cracked surface.
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5
Bake in the water bath until the surface is set and no longer moves in the centre when the tray is nudged — the quindim should be firm at the edge yet retain a faint, barely-perceptible tremor at the very centre. A skewer inserted at the edge should come out clean.
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6
Remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow them to cool until just warm to the touch — neither hot nor cold. Run a thin knife around the interior edge of each ramekin. Invert onto a serving plate with a single confident motion. The quindim should release cleanly, presenting its brilliantly yellow, glossy face upward with a layer of toasted coconut visible beneath. If unmoulded cold, the custard will stick; if hot, it will collapse.