Coconut Cream Pie

            I am supposed to be putting the finishing touches on my “graduation” speech so that I can begin practicing it to give the day before my twentieth birthday, but since my mind needed a break I decided to stop over here and put up a post. Now would be a good time to share one of my favorite desserts that I’ve had for my past few birthdays – Coconut Cream Pie! If you don’t like coconut you probably won’t like this pie. But if you like coconut as much as I do (which is a LOT!) then this is a must try!

Coconut Cream Pie

1 9-inch pie crust (see recipe below)

¾ cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

¼ cup cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)

¼ tsp salt

2 ¼ cup milk

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp butter

2/3 cup coconut

Bake pie shell and set aside to cool. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan. Add milk, whisking until smooth. Cook over medium heat, while stirring, until bubbly. Decrease heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot filling into yolks. Return all to saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla extract, butter, and coconut to mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into baked pie shell. Chill at least 4 hours before serving. Optional: sprinkle coconut on top of filling before chilling.

Pie Crust

We never had much success with whole wheat pie crusts until we came across this recipe!

1 cup flour

¾ tsp salt

½ cup butter, cold

1 Tbsp egg, beaten

½ tsp vinegar

1½–2 Tbsp water, cold

Combine flour and salt. Cut butter into ½-Tbsp-size pieces and add to dry ingredients. Cut into flour with pastry blender until butter is the size of peas. Combine liquid ingredients and add to flour/butter mixture. Mix just until dough pulls together. (At this point you can proceed with however you like to do pie crusts. Some people like to chill them at this point before the next step. Following is how I do it.) Form dough into a ball and put between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll out into a circle that fills a pie plate and extends about ½ of an inch beyond the edges. Transfer to pie pan (you may need to chill just a bit before you can do this step if the dough is very limp.) Fold under extra dough along the edges. Crimp edge.

For prebaked pie shell, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line pastry with aluminum foil and fill with dry beans (this is to prevent sides from collapsing, so make sure that the beans are concentrated against the edges). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until dough is dry. Remove foil and beans. Continue baking for 7-12 minutes or until desired doneness is reached.