As mentioned in a previous post I am spending my summer mastering the art of pie baking. I decided my first pie would be a Coconut Cream pie. This decision surprised me because neither I or my husband are fans of coconut desserts. However, my friend who also isn’t a big coconut fan insisted I make it. I figured why not? Since I don’t love coconut, the chances of me eating the whole pie were slim. Boy was I wrong! This pie is really,really good and if you’re not into coconut this pie will change your mind.

This pie can be made with a traditional pie crust or with at graham cracker crust. I opted for the graham cracker crust which is simple and only has four ingredients.

Graham crackers, vanilla extract, butter and sugar

I ground up the graham cracker’s into fine crumbs, melted the butter. Added the melted butter, sugar and vanilla extract to the crumbs and stirred to combine. Once the all the ingredients were combined I pressed them into a pie pan.

Graham cracker crust before it’s baked

The crust goes into the oven for twelve minutes to bake until it’s set and brown.

Baked graham cracker crust.

While that cooled I got out the rest of the ingredients I needed for the pie.

Sugar, flour, half and half, eggs, salt, sweetened coconut. coconut milk and vanilla extract

Next I put the flour, sugar, salt, eggs and half and half  and coconut milk into a large sauce pan and whisked them together until smooth. Whisking until the custard is smooth is essential to ensure that the custard doesn’t come out lumpy or with bits of unincorporated flour in it.

I heated the custard over medium heat  constantly stirring until it became thick. Once the custard had thickened I added the coconut flakes and vanilla extract and continued to stir until incorporated.

Custard with coconut flakes and vanilla extract.

Finally I poured the custard into the pie shell and place in the refrigerator for at least four hours until the custard set and became firm.

coconut Cream pie before it has chilled.

While the pie was chilling in the refrigerator I toasted some coconut flakes in a dry skillet on the stove top and made whipped cream. Once the pie had set. I topped with whipped cream and toasted coconut flakes.

I will say that the crust didn’t set as firm as I would have liked around the edges, in-spite of that the pie tasted amazing! Given that I don’t typically enjoy coconut desserts, I was surprised at how much I loved this pie and how I could not stop eating it. Even my husband who wasn’t excited at the prospect of me making this for dessert loved it! I gave a piece to the friend who gave me the recipe and she said it was amazing. The great thing about this pie is, it’s pretty simple to make and has a big wow factor when you serve it. I would highly recommend this pie for pie baking beginners and for summer get together’s and potlucks.

It looks like my pie and Ice-cream summer is off to a great start!

For the full Coconut Pie recipe got to Baking Bites blog