Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut Cream Pie is one of my dad's favorite desserts so, in honor of his visit to the farm tonight, I whipped one up.  I have to admit that pie crust eludes me and, as a result, I never make homemade crust for a single crust pie.  Today I bucked the trend and made my own crust to tasty if not beautiful results.  Both the crust and the pie filling were adapted from The New Best Recipe Cookbook.


You'll Need:

1 fully baked and completely cooled pie crust

1 1/4 sweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 egg yolks lightly beaten
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 Tb butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Whipped Cream Topping
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tb sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Put coconut into a 9" cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until coconut begins to turn golden brown.  Stir occasionally during the last 10 minutes of baking for even browning.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat whisk together sugar, corn starch and salt.

Mix in egg yolks until fully incorporated then add milk and evaporated milk.  Whisk constantly until mixture begins to boil (approximately 8 minutes) and continue to cook, stirring constantly, for one more minute.

Take thickened pudding mixture off of the heat and add in butter, vanilla extract and 1 cup of the toasted coconut.

Spoon hot pudding into a spare pie pan, cake pan, or other similarly sized shallow vessel.  Press plastic wrap into the top of the pudding and set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Once the pudding has cooled for 20 minutes, spoon pudding into the prepared pie crust.  Press plastic wrap into the top of the pudding and put in fridge for at least 2 hours.

An hour before you would like to serve the pie, put the heavy cream, vanilla and sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until the cream has tripled in volume and will hold an almost stiff peak.

Spread whipped cream over the top of the pie and sprinkle with the reserved coconut.

Return pie to refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.