For most, a Pie is a beat-all dessert to serve at any occasion. While not always easy to make, a pie can be quite rewarding with its flaky or mealy dough filled with whatever is preferred. In fact, just about anything can be used to fill a pie with; whether its sweet contents like a compote, custard, and puree or savory contents like meats, fish, vegetables, and even savory variants of the former.
Today's recipe will be a cream-filled pie, meaning it will call for pastry cream to serve as the filling. As for the flavor, it will be a popular tropical variant known as coconut cream.
Also, for the sake of convenience, this recipe will forego the tedium of making a pie shell from scratch and instead call for a pre-baked one straight out of the grocery store. Lastly, the coconut cream pie will be topped with whipped cream and garnished with toasted coconut. The recipe calls for a lot of items but is pretty simple especially since the pie shell has already been made. Just follow the instructions on the package it came from and do the same for the rest of course.
Pie and topping recipe
Pie ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 4 oz cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp coconut extract
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1 pie shell (9"), baked
Topping ingredients:
- 2 cup whipping cream
- 4 oz powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Toasted coconut as needed
Pie directions:
- Bake the pie shell according to the instructions. Take note of temperature and baking time required. Remove from oven and cool completely.
- Pour the milk, coconut extract and half of the sugar into a non-reactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Do not let it boil.
- Whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Temper the yolk mixture by whisking 1/4 of the boiling milk into it. Return the mixture to the saucepan and whisk while it cooks for 2 minutes or until it thickens.
- Remove the custard from the heat and gently fold the butter into it until it fully dissolves. Fold in the shaved coconut until it's distributed throughout the custard to complete the coconut cream.
- Pour the coconut cream into the baked pie shell. Seal and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
Topping directions:
- Pour the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until the firm peaks form. Do not overbeat.
- Spread the whipped cream evenly over the surface of the pie using a rubber spatula. Garnish with toasted coconut.
- Serve immediately or seal and refrigerate.