SMS: Coconut Custard Pie

This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays was chosen by Ruby of I Dream of Baking: coconut custard pie!  I was on the fence this week about whether I’d participate, but only because I was short on time as I was trying to get packed to head out for a mini vacation.  I hate not baking along with the group though so I found a few spare minutes and luckily, my mom offered to take the pie to her office so it wouldn’t be sitting at my house after I left.

This coconut custard pie couldn’t be easier to throw together, especially if you’re comfortable making pie crust.  If you’re not, store-bought crust would work and make life even easier.  Pie crust still scares me a bit but I’ve improved a lot over the past year and I like to challenge myself by making it rather than buying it.  Though the book suggested using the all-butter pie crust recipe, I went with the flaky crust (which contains shortening) because I find that it retains its shape better in the oven than the all-butter.  I wish the all-butter dough looked as pretty after baking, because it’s a breeze to put together and is really delicious.  The crust is prebaked so while it’s in the oven, you can throw together the filling.  All of the ingredients are thrown in a blender or food processor, whirred up and poured into the prebaked crust, which has been sprinkled with coconut.  Little pieces of butter dot the pie and then it is baked until the edges are set, the center is almost set (it will jiggle just slightly) and a thin knife inserted in the pie near the center comes out clean.

I don’t often make custard pies so I don’t have much of a basis for comparison, but I thought the finished pie was pretty unattractive!  Mine didn’t brown evenly and was sort of dimpled.  I decided to whip up a little cream to cover the top and then used toasted coconut as a garnish.  Besides, whipped cream makes everything better, right??  My mom stopped by to pick up the pie and I had her try a piece before she brought it to her office – she declared it a success 🙂  It also received rave reviews from her coworkers so although I didn’t taste it, it’s probably a recipe worthy of a repeat here. 

Many thanks to Ruby for hosting this week!  She will post the recipe on her site today or you can find it on pages 191-192 of the Sweet Melissa Baking Book.  Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day weekend!