Coconut Cream Pie is a retro treat any time of the year.

It’s creamy, light and full of coconut flavor. With your own homemade pie crust, this pie will dazzle any dessert table.

Toasted coconut adorns this special pie, to give it a toasty warm bit of crunch flavor. A homemade pie on your dessert table looks so lovely. This pie, with the whipped cream topping and toasted coconut garnish, is an extra-special dessert.

Instead of getting a store-bought pie to end tonight’s dinner, why not bake your own?

Coconut Cream Pie goes well after any meal and is a special pie to serve. You can use the freshest and best ingredients instead of a super-sweet canned pie filling from the store.

If you don’t have a little extra time to make a pie crust, you can always buy one. However, you can blind bake your crust the night prior to making your pie and fill and garnish it the next day. All you would have to do is store your baked crust in a cool place, covered.

Decadently delicious, this cream pie is a great recipe to save and to pull out for a holiday or for Pi Day on March 14.

Coconut cream pie

Blind Bake Pie Crust

1¼ cups + 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons of granulated sugar

¼ of a teaspoon of salt

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cold and small cube

2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening

4-5 tablespoons of water

In a large bowl, place flour, sugar and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until chilled, approximately 30 minutes. Put your food processor bowl and the blade in the refrigerator, too. You want these ingredients and your tools cold for pie crust with best results.

After these items are cold, add your flour mixture to the food processor bowl. Process ingredients for a few seconds just to incorporate.

Add the cold shortening and the butter. Pulse for a few seconds, until the butter is about the size of small peas.

While pulsing the machine, gradually pulse in the water until all the water is combined. The dough holds together a bit at this stage. Do not over-pulse. Take your crust out of the processor bowl. Using a piece of plastic wrap, push the crust dough gently together by folding the dough with the pieces of plastic. Form into a disc of crust but do not overwork to do so. I use a rolling pin to slightly roll the dough into a flat, even disc. This distributes the water throughout the crust nicely. Cover and refrigerate your covered crust.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out your pie crust, cold. If the dough is too difficult to roll out, set out for a few moments.

Place the dough into your large glass baking pie pan and form into the pan. Chill your pre-baked crust in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes. (Baker’s note: You can actually do this last step the day before you make the pie and store it in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. You can also freeze pie crusts molded in your pie pan, covered, for up to about 1 month.)

After you take your pie crust out of the refrigerator, poke the bottom of the pie crust with a fork. (Baker’s Notes: By doing this, the pie crust will not shrink and this will prevent air pockets from forming in the crust.)

Place parchment paper on the inside of the crust. Cover the parchment paper with a layer of dry uncooked beans. This will help to keep the shape of the crust.

Bake your crust for approximately 15 minutes. Then, remove the beans and bake the crust another 3-5 minutes or until the crust has taken on some color and the crust looks set.

Coconut Pie Filling

2/3 cup of granulated sugar

One 15-ounce can of coconut milk

1¼ cups of whole milk

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature

5 egg yolks

¼ of a cup of cornstarch

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

½ of a teaspoon of coconut extract

1¼ cup of shredded coconut, divided into 1 cup and ¼ cup (for garnish)

A pinch of salt

Pour both milks into a saucepan. Turn the heat on to medium and bring up to a simmer. While the milks are heating, whisk together your egg yolks and sugar, until light in color. Add the cornstarch into the egg mixture and whisk to combine.

When the milk mixture is heated, gradually add the milks mixture into the egg mixture to temper the egg mixture so it won’t curdle. The cornstarch prevents that from happening. However, I do temper the egg mixture anyway just in case.

Next, put all of the egg mixture into the milk mixture. Combine, whisking the mixture over medium high heat until thickened and bubbling in the center. Take the mixture off of the heat and add in the butter and both extracts. Whisk to combine and pour the filling mix through a strainer over a large bowl.

Mix in the one cup of shredded coconut. Cover the pie filling with plastic wrap, directly on the surface of the pudding mixture. Place into the refrigerator until completely cool.

Remove the pie filling mixture from the refrigerator and place all of your filling into the cooled crust. Cover your pie with the plastic wrap touching the custard again, until you are ready to garnish and serve your pie.

Garnish your homemade coconut custard pie with fresh whipped cream and toasted coconut.

To toast your coconut, place the ¼ of a cup of coconut on a small baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until slightly browned. Once your pie is garnished, chill until serving. Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. She is a former line cook for Chef Robert Irvine at “Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine” which was located at the Downtown Allentown Market. Sarah is currently working as a Sous-Chef at Ateira’s on First and has her own blog simplysarah.online. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.