Happy Birthday, Coconut!

Cat person vs. crazy cat lady?  You decide.  Coconut (my first born, if you will) is turning 2 today, and I am baking coconut cream pie in celebration!

Joe and I had no intention of getting a cat that soon.  It was the day after we got back to Portland after driving Ruby (my awesome red Civic) cross country and we were running errands when we stumbled upon a pet adoption event.  Coconut (then Artemis) had literally wedged half of her body out of the cage in attempt to get close to us, and when I asked to hold her, she fell asleep in my arms!  How could we say no? I had to fight off a five year old, but we became a family of 3 that day.

Happy Birthday to my bob-tailed, catnip-loving Queen!

PS - all of our cats are named after food.  You can expect appropriately themed posts when Curry and Cashew's birthdays roll around.

 Coconut Cream Pie

 

Back in the day, I hated custards (ridiculous, I know.) This was one of the first pies we learned in pastry school and it changed my mind completely.  Today I used a gluten free pie crust and adapted the filling recipe from here, and voila!-- Coconut Cream Pie for Coconut's birthday.

 Ingredients

1 blind-baked 9-inch pie shell (for gluten-free, I used the pie crust recipe on Pamela's GF bread mix)

2 1/4 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 tablespoon butter

1 cup heavy cream
powdered sugar to taste
pure vanilla extract to taste

 Directions

In a saucepan, whisk  2 cups of the milk and 1/2 cup of the sugar together. Place the pan over medium heat and bring the liquid up to a simmer.

Whisk the cornstarch and 1/4 cup remaining sugar together until no clumps remain.  Whisk in egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup milk until smooth. Temper the hot milk into the egg yolks. Whisk the egg mixture into the hot milk mixture.  Bring the liquid up to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until the filling is thick, about 4 to 6 minutes. (Optional: strain your mixture at this point.  The egg has a tendency to cook unevenly and this will eliminate any chunks.) Fold in the vanilla, coconut, and butter. Mix well. Pour the filling into the prepared crust, press plastic wrap directly on filling (this will prevent the cornstarch from forming a "skin"), and cool the pie completely.

Flavor the heavy cream with powdered sugar and vanilla (or other extract) to taste. Using an electric mixer with a whip attachment, whip the cream to stiff peaks, being careful not to over-whip.  Spread or pipe the whipped cream over the top of the pie.