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1
Warm 3/4 cup water (or more) in case some of it spills in the microwave. You may have to remeasure the water once out of the microwave. Pour the gelatin into water and stir with spoon to dissolve it. Set aside.
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2
Mix together the evaporated milk, coconut milk, condensed milk, and sugar. Add the water/gelatin mixture, and cook over low medium heat until the sugar and gelatin are dissolved. Do not let simmer. Remove from heat, and add the vanilla extract and (optional) the lime zest. However, please note that if you are going to unmold this dessert, you may see some of the zest (as in picture) at the top of the dessert (bottom of dessert if not unmolded). If you don't like this, just skip the zest.
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3
Pour mixture onto either a lightly sprayed pyrex dish if you want to serve it right from the dish (the usual 9x13 pyrex is too big so look for a smaller one; sorry I do not know exact size) or onto a lightly sprayed mold if you want to unmold it. Put in refrigerator for at least 24 hours . Of course, for presentation purposes, unmolding it is better but it can be tricky. In the picture I used a 9 cup ceramic bundt-like dish. To serve unmolded, carefully loosen the edges with a knife until you can feel that the dessert is shaking loose from the edges. Invert onto a plate. Right before serving, sprinkle 1/4 cup or more of the toasted, coconut flakes on the unmolded blancmange; and leave the rest aside for people to add more on their individual slices if they want. I myself love to add LOTS of it. But note that once you put leftover in fridge, the coconut flakes may not be as crunchy due to the wet surface of the dessert. So this is why I prefer to leave most of the flakes in a separate dish for people to use right before eating.
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4
For the sweetened coconut flakes, you can either toast in a pan, or (like me) put it in a 350 degree heated oven and occasionally stir the flakes so that all sides are evenly and very well (meaning very brown*) toasted. This may require a bit of patience; and (off the top of my head) about 15+ minutes in the oven. The flakes can get too dark very easily, so be careful. Do not be distracted while you are toasting the flakes, particularly if you do so inside oven. Let cool (uncovered) before using. * I like my flakes really really brown because this makes them more crispy.
