This post has been edited to provide pictorial evidence of how awesome this Coconut Cream Pie is upon recovery.
Ever have something so profoundly tragic happen that you cannot help but scream and cry and bang your steering wheel? Well, apparently, what happened yesterday qualifies for me: I spilled a not-yet-set coconut cream pie in my car.
But before we get there, let’s start at the beginning. Stacy had been begging me to make a coconut cream pie for a couple of weeks and I had not gotten around to it yet. So yesterday we were going to her dad’s house for dinner after a cooking class I had at 2:30 and needed to make dessert. I volunteered to adapt this pie with the cream part made of almond milk and coconut milk.
Ingredients
- 1 pre-baked pie crust, we use Elana’s Pantry Gluten Free Pie Crust
- 2 C almond milk, vanilla
- 1 1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 C coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 C palm sugar
- 6 Tbsp arrowroot powder
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/2 C palm sugar
- 1/4 C water
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/4 C shredded unsweetened coconut toasted
Instructions
- ? Combine almond milk, coconut milk, vanilla and coconut in saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to bubble, about 5 minutes
- ? Remove and cover for about 15 minutes
- ? In a separate bowl, whisk sugar, yolks, arrowroot, and salt together
- Strain out coconut from milk mixture with strainer, colander or cheesecloth
- ? Add strained milk slowly into yolk mixture while little hands whisk
- ? Return to pot and bring this to a boil over high heat
- ? Remove from heat and whisk in coconut oil until smooth
- Chill in refrigerator for ten minutes
- Pour into crust
- Let set in the fridge for 2 hours; skipping this step may result in disaster
- ? In new bowl, whip egg whites with tartar until soft peaks form
- ? In saucepan, whisk together water and sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat
- Continue boiling until thin syrup forms, about 6 minutes
- ? Start whipping eggs again while slowly adding syrup
- ? Spread on top of chilled pie and chill again for another couple of hours
- ? Top with toasted coconut
- ? Indicates a step for which we recommend you have little hands help
My catastrophic choice was to embark on this culinary journey around 1 PM and did not chill the pie before I had to leave the house at 2:00 for my Thai cooking class. Pulling out of the driveway the pie slopped out of the crust and all over the floor of the car. I cried and screamed at the world. I said to Stacy, “This must be what it’s like to spill milk you’ve pumped; I’ve worked at this so hard only to see the results on the floor.”
Luckily, Stacy fixed everything by picking up some (gluten-free) cupcakes which were enjoyed by all.
On the bright side, after years on her waiting list Nongkran Daks taught me how to make my own curry paste. Look forward to that in the future!
