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.
