A Coconut Treat for Christmas

Welcome back to my kitchen!

Thought I'd give you and your oven a little break

today, by sharing my most popular recipe,

Coconut Cream Pie, as promised.

This particular recipe comes from the magazine, 

Ladies' Home Journal, May 1991 edition. The recipe calls

for a ready made, baked, pastry crust, but because this is

not available here on the island, I always substitute it with my

own digestive cookie crumble crust, which only requires

ten minutes of baking. The rest of the pie is cooked on the stove top!

 To make the crust: 

1 single 9-inch baked pastry crust
 

or

 ½ cup digestive cookies
 (or graham crackers)

¼ cup butter, melted

1 tbsp sugar

To make the filling:

⅔  cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ tsp salt

2 ½ cups milk

½ cup heavy or whipping cream

3 large egg yolks

1 ⅓ shredded coconut (I add a little more)

    1 tbsp butter or margarine

     2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the topping:

¾ heavy or whipping cream

2 tbsp icing sugar (my addition)

1 tbsp rum or brandy (my addition)

 ½ cup shredded coconut, toasted

 Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

Crumble cookies, stir in butter and sugar 

and press into pie plate.

Bake 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in large 

saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk and cream

until smooth. Bring to boil over medium-high 

heat, stirring gently, boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. 

Beat egg yolks lightly in a small bowl.

Gradually whisk in 1 cup hot filling mixture, 

then return to saucepan, whisking constantly.

Boil 1 minute more. Remove from heat.

Immediately pour filling into baked pastry/cookie crust.

Cool on wire rack 15 minutes, (I bring it to room temperature).

 Cover filling and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 

Beat whipping cream until soft peaks form.

Add icing sugar and rum, (optional, but adds to

that exotic essence!).

Just before serving, spread pie with

whipped cream mixture, and sprinkle with toasted

coconut. Makes 8 servings. 

I made this tasty, tropical pie recently for 

some dear friends, for a Sunday luncheon

 I had the pleasure of hosting, here at the house.

Now, this family is quite traditional, and

they don't stray too far away from their Cretan 

cuisine, but as soon as they tasted this pie's creamy,

coconut flavour, it was love at first bite!

Eva, the lovely daughter, and a student of mine,

carefully noted down the recipe, while her parents

indulged in the tropical luxury of a luscious coconut treat!

Thanks for visiting!

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