Coconut Pie (2)

Edit: This recipe was submitted to Food52's "Your Best Recipe with Coconut" contest and it won!! So you know it's really good!

I shared a coconut pie recipe here two years ago that was inspired by my trip to Turks & Caicos (I'm headed there again in October). Well, I've tweaked the recipe slightly. I decided I didn't want a recipe that only uses up three quarters of a can of sweetened cream of coconut. What am I supposed to do with that quarter can? Make one piña colada? Anyway, this recipe isn't too different from the first one I shared but I'm just redoing the post anyway since the last one was done with my crappy iPhone camera. And this one's just as yummy as that first one so don't you fret.

Ingredients:
filling
1½ cups whole milk
15 oz. can of sweetened cream of coconut
4 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

crust
1 sleeve of graham crackers (8 crackers)
¼ cup pecans
4 tablespoons melted butter

topping
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
½ cup coconut flakes

Start by making the crust. Most of the time, I like to use a zip-top baggie and a rolling pin to smash up the crackers but I didn't have any zip-top baggies that day so I used a food processor. You do what you like.

Mix the crumbs with melted butter until it resembles wet sand. Make sure the butter is well distributed, otherwise you might end up with dry patches of crust that won't hold together.

Pour the crumbs into a pie dish and press it down, either using a mug or your hand. I opted for my hand this time. Bake the crust at 350F for ten minutes and then set it aside and let it cool.

Heat up the milk and cream of coconut in a saucepan until scalding.

Meanwhile, whisk together the yolks with the sugar, salt, and cornstarch until the mixture is pale yellow and the sugar is dissolved.

Temper the yolks with some of the hot milk mixture. Tempering is important because you don't want the yolks to curdle. When you're making a custard and your yolks curdle, you'll taste it. It'll taste super eggy in a bad way so avoid curdling your yolks!

Pour the custard mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat until it comes to a boil and thickens. Add butter and vanilla extract and whisk in. Let the custard cool to room temperature. The custard should have the consistency of a runny pudding.

Pour the custard into the crust, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until chilled completely, at least 4 hours.

Whisk together heavy cream and powdered sugar until fluffy and spreadable.

Toast coconut until crunchy and golden. You can do this in the oven on a sheet pan or on the stove top like I did. I like doing it on the stove just because you have a little more control and at least for me personally, it's less likely to burn.

Spread whipped cream on top of the pie and sprinkle with the toasted coconut.

Serve the pie and enjoy this marvelous dessert.

The crispy coconut flake topping, the light and fluffy whipped cream, the delicious custard, the crunchy graham cracker crust, it's a perfect summery dessert.

Here's the recipe page: