Contents
The same pastry cream as banana cream pie, infused with coconut milk and loaded with toasted coconut, under a mountain of whipped cream. It is the best of the diner cream pies because coconut brings texture as well as flavour, and because toasted coconut on top gives it something the others lack.
What makes it work
- Replace half the milk with coconut milk. Full-fat tinned, not the carton drink. Coconut milk alone makes a filling that is heavy and slightly greasy; half and half is the balance. See Coconut milk.
- Toast the coconut in two batches — one folded into the filling, one for the top. Untoasted coconut in a wet filling goes stringy and tastes of nothing.
- Boil the pastry cream two full minutes, for the reason set out on banana cream pie: raw yolk amylase will liquefy the filling overnight.
- A tablespoon of rum or a few drops of coconut extract lifts it; coconut is surprisingly mild once it is cooked into dairy.
- Blind bake the shell properly and seal it. A cream pie sits in a shell for hours before it is eaten.
Ingredients
One 23 cm pie. Serves 10.
- 1 blind-baked shell — all-butter pie crust
Filling:
- 300 ml whole milk
- 300 ml full-fat coconut milk
- 150 g granulated sugar
- 50 g cornstarch
- 6 egg yolks
- 4 g fine salt
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 2 tsp vanilla — see Pure vanilla extract
- 100 g desiccated coconut, toasted
Topping:
- 400 ml double cream
- 40 g powdered sugar
- 60 g coconut flakes, toasted
Method
Blind bake and cool the shell.
Warm the milk and coconut milk together. Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, salt and yolks pale, pour in the hot liquid slowly while whisking, and return it all to the pan.
Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and bubbling, then boil two full minutes.
Off the heat, whisk in the butter and vanilla, strain, then fold in the 100 g of toasted desiccated coconut.
Pour into the shell, press cling film onto the surface, and chill at least four hours.
Whip the cream with the powdered sugar to soft peaks, pile it on, and scatter the toasted flakes.
Notes
- Toast coconut at 160 °C for 6–8 minutes, stirring twice. It goes from pale to burnt in about ninety seconds at the end.
- Toasted coconut and dark chocolate shavings together make this the best-looking pie in the folder.
- Keeps three days refrigerated, which is longer than the banana version.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Pie and tart recipes · pies and tarts · Coconut
Nearby: banana cream pie · chocolate cream pie · custard pie