I have been sorely neglecting this poor little blog o’ mine. Between work and home buying and Downton Abbey-ing, I just haven’t been putting in the time. I’ve been a deadbeat blogger. And I’ve missed it! I haven’t been experimenting with recipes, taking photos, researching food styles like before. Baking has slowed down, and Monday night dinners have mainly been staple recipes I can throw together in 30 minutes. My mind has been preoccupied.
But, luckily, things are going to be slowing down soon. The Club goes on recess during the month of July, so my late hours and super busy schedule will slow down for a bit. And, I will have some other news to announce hopefully next week that will definitely bring about some schedule changes
But, in the meantime, we have some Father’s Day coconut cream pie to whet our appetites.
My dad loves coconut cream pie and I love my dad, so I put aside my distaste of all things pie and coconut in the name of my papa’s happiness.
Well, it wasn’t a totally dirty job. I actually love making pies, especially cream pies. Any recipe that has at least 3,000 steps involved has my interest.
I used a basic custard recipe I’ve developed and added coconut cream in place of half of the regular cream. Then I folded in angel flake coconut and topped it with toasted coconut. Angel flake is by far the best to use for baking; it’s shaved tissue paper thin, great smooth texture and toasts up in no time. I usually toast my coconut in the oven, but seeing as how it was about 500ºF here this weekend, the stovetop seemed like a far less torturous way to finish off this recipe.
This pie is sweet, rich, velvety, crunchy, everything a coconut cream pie should be. Adding the coconut cream to the custard really elevates the flavor, much more than just folding in some flake coconut to a basic custard.
Happy Father’s Day Papa! THG
Coconut Cream Pie
Pie crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup ice water
Filling:
7 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 10 oz. can coconut cream
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups angel flake coconut, divided
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add in cold butter. Using a pastry cutter, mix in butter until its broken down into pea-sized bits. Add in ice water, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until the dough comes together. Shape into a disk and dump onto a well-floured countertop. Roll out into a large circle and place into a 9” pie plate. Crimp the edges and puncture the bottom. Place aluminum foil and dry beans or pie weights in center of pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and weights and return to oven for another 10 minutes until crust is golden brown. Let cool.
In a small frying pan, toast 1 cup flake coconut over medium-high heat until golden brown. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and ribboned. In a small saucepan, heat 1 1/2 cups heavy cream until just simmering. While whisking the egg mixture, add 1/4 cup of the hot cream to temper eggs. Add hot egg mixture to remaining cream in saucepan, whisking the whole time. Add coconut cream and whisk until combined. Add cornstarch to mixture and whisk until combined. Continue to cook custard over medium high heat until mixture thickens considerably. Set aside to cool.
Whisk remaining 1 cup of heavy cream in a stand mixer to stiff peaks. Strain cooled custard through a fine mesh sieve onto whipped cream. Add remaining 1 cup flake coconut and fold all together until smooth. Pour into cooled pie crust, smoothing the top. Top with toasted coconut. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Serve chilled.
Makes 1 9” pie