Coconut Cream Pie......

 

I made the most scrumptious Coconut Cream Pie yesterday. Creamy, full of coconut flavor and just delightful.
I've been trying to find the best Coconut Cream Pie that tasted really good but wasn't break the bank expensive. The first Pie I tried used flour...eh..didn't like that. Next I tried the cornstarch recipes. Much better. I played around with the recipes I found and came up with this one that is so good. I adapted this recipe from this one..Coconut Cream Pie. I wanted more coconut flavor and a different crust.

For the crust I used a graham cracker crust.
1 single package of Graham Crackers
6 Tablespoons of butter or margarine melted
1/4 cup sugar
Heat oven to 375 degrees. If you have food processor, put in the package of graham crackers and sugar, pulse till it's crumbs. Add butter mix it up..not to much, just so the crust sticks together and the butter is incorporated. I used a 10 inch pie plate and patted the crust around the sides and bottom. Place in heated oven for about 7-10 minutes until light golden brown and set. ( I put mine in a bit longer as I like it to have a nice golden brown color. Just watch it real close) Once done, take out of the oven and cool.

For the Coconut Cream Pie...
In a sauce pan whisk together

2 cups fat free half and half
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup corn starch...( I mixed the corn starch with the milk before I added it to everything else to get rid of lumps)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 teaspoons coconut flavoring

2 Tablespoons of butter (melted)
1 cup Coconut

Cook these ingredients, all except the butter and coconut) over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken up and looks a lot like pudding. Take off the heat and add the butter. Mix up the butter first as it seems to separate. After you've mixed the butter..fold in the coconut. It's best to add the coconut after the mixture thickens as it seems to keep the creamy consistency a lot better.
Pour into graham cracker crust plate and put in the fridge for a few hours until it sets. THEN..
Beat with an electric beater
1 cup whipping cream and
1 Tablespoon sugar
to make whip cream
Once your pie is cool..spread it all around baby! I also toasted some coconut in the oven after I took the graham cracker crust out. Watch it close, they brown fast.

And enjoy!! To be honest, I'm not a huge coconut fan and have never had Coconut Cream pie before. This first time I tried it is the first time I made it. My first try at it was a disaster and I thought.."people like this stuff?" BUT...I tried again and I'm a coconut believer now. It's that good.