Coconut Cream Pie

 

Good morning! I hope that you had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was lazy, hot, rainy and humid and then overnight it was Fall. Sunday morning the air was crisp, there was a slight breeze, a lot more leaves across the porch and I could smell the faint hint of a wood  fire in someones fireplace. Out with the shorts and t-shirts and in with the comfy yoga pants and fleece for the early morning walks in the snap of your fingers. 

 

Cool weather makes me want to nest and bake! As I wanted to warm up the kitchen and keeping room without turning on the heat I thought a pie was in order. Nothing fancy but something comforting, easy and delicious, a coconut cream pie seemed to fit my mood.  Luckily when I was reviewing Teeny Lamothe’s cookbook, Teeny’s tour of Pies last month I made a few extra pie crusts so I simply got one out of of the freezer, let it bake and set  to work on the filling.

This pie is easy, if you do not have a homemade shell simply use store bought or perhaps even graham cracker crumbs. Then all you have to do is toast the coconut, make the pudding and top liberally with freshly whipped cream.  In no time you have the perfect pie to relieve your sweet tooth.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 Pre-baked pie crust

Crust recipe HERE

Filling:

11/2 cup flaked coconut, toasted

11/2 cups coconut milk

11/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup corn starch

2 eggs, beaten

1 egg yolk, beaten

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1/4 teaspoon salt

Garnish with:

1 cup heavy cream, whipped and sweetened

toasted coconut

Heat oven to 350. Spread coconut on baking sheet and toast for approximately 5 minutes or until golden brown. Watch the coconut and stir occasionally as it can burn fast.

In a medium sauce pan mix, the coconut milk, heavy cream, eggs, egg yolk, salt, flour and corn starch. Mix well. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. The mixture takes about 20-25 minutes to thicken. Make sure that you bring it to a full boil. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla bean paste and toasted coconut. Fill pie shell. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 5 hours. Then top with sweetened, whipped heavy cream. Garnish with coconut.

Whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to medium peaks and sweeten to taste with 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar.

I love this pie, it is sweet, creamy and nutty, the coconut taste is just right. The filling is very versatile in that you can swap out the coconut milk and just use the equal amount of milk, half and half or heavy cream and you have a neutral filling for banana cream pie, a pie topped with fresh berries or whatever else you can imagine. 

What did you bake or make this weekend? 

Is your weather cooling off? Do you feel Fall coming? Or did you have a little snow?

Have a great day!