The BEST Coconut Cream Pie (Seriously)
The Farmer’s Wife has sooooo many eggs, she hardly knows what to do!
“I know,” she says. “I will make the BEST Coconut Cream pie!”
And so she does.
First, she starts with the Crust. For that, she takes 3/4 cup flour and stirs with it 1/3 cup confectionary sugar and a pinch of salt. To that she cuts in 4 tablespoons of cold butter. The Farmer’s Wife uses an old fashioned pastry blender, but you can use a food processor or your hands if you don’t have either of those. She keeps mixing until the butter is as small as peas. To that she stirs in one egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of very cold water. When the spoon gives up, the Farmer’s Wife gets her hands in and works the dough until it forms a ball. This is rolled out, folded in half, and put on a tart pan–but you can use a pie plate, if you want–just make sure you poke the bottoms and sides with a fork. We don’t want sunken pastry around here!
A piece of foil is placed on top and weighted down with beans and the whole thing is put in a preheated 350 degree oven to bake while the filling is being made.
In the spirit of Waste Not Want Not, the Farmer’s Wife decides to toast her coconut, seeing as the oven is already hot and all. To do that, she spreads the coconut (1/2 cup) onto a baking sheet and places it in the oven as well.
But watch that coconut! It burns easy! The Farmer’s Wife found that out the hard way. But don’t worry, she didn’t burn it this time. She got it out just in time.
For the Filling:
She puts six egg yolks in a mixer, (or you can mix by hand) until thick and pale. To that she adds 2/3 cup of white sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. While that’s mixing, she puts 1 and 1/3 cup good whole milk and 1 cup cream on the stove until it just starts to simmer. Once it does, she pours that in a stream over the egg mixture and lets it mix until all is well with the world.
The whole thing is put back into the saucepan the milk and cream came from and set back on low heat. This is cooked and stirred until it boils. Once it does, 1/3 cup of virgin coconut oil is added. She stirs that well, then strains it before setting in the fridge to cool.
The crust is as golden as the morning sun, so the Farmer’s Wife takes that out and sets it on a rack to cool as well.
Once all is cool, the coconut that was toasted is folded into the custard–but save just a bit for sprinkling on top–the pie must be pretty, after all! A cup of heavy cream is whipped with a tablespoon of sugar until it thickens and peaks nicely. This is also folded into the custard and that’s it for the Filling. It’s spooned into the crust, piling it up high and topped with some of that toasted coconut you set aside just for that very thing.
Enjoy!
