Yummy Coconut Cream Pie...

ANOTHER THING I love about summer holidays is all the pies! Can there ever be enough pie? I, for one don't think so!! Pie is my weakness. Fruit pies, cream pies, meat pies, put it in pastry and you've got me! So when I came across this recipe on Dough Puncher for a coconut cream pie in an 11 x 17 pan I was right there!! I mean a whole 11 x 17 pan of pie, I was like Garfield and lasagna. You know what I mean, and while my favorite pies are apple and strawberry-rhubarb, coconut cream is right up there.

So here's our creation from the Dough Puncher's blog. I did make a couple of tweaks.

First, as with any pie, you make the dough. If you have crust phobia, you can always purchase a store bought crust, so don't let this step intimidate you from making this! Since I made my dough I added a little coconut extract to the crust.

Once you have your crust you need to bake it off as this is a cream pie and is not baked. Then you make your filling. The recipe called for whole milk, but I didn't have any on hand, so I substituted a combination of 2% and heavy cream. It worked just fine. Once you've made your custard and poured it in the crust, then you'll need to chill it before you put on the whipped cream.

**Just a note if you've not used corn starch before to thicken something. It seems like it takes forever, but then once the custard gets to a certain temp it thickens real fast. So be patient.

The final step is to just whip the cream and toast your coconut. I tweaked my version a bit from her recipe. I added coconut extract to the cream instead of vanilla. Also, I bloomed some Knox Gelatin in my cream before I whipped it. This step prevents your cream from becoming "weepy" and it hold up better. So whip your cream, toast your coconut and you're good to go! Enjoy!

For the full recipe click here....