Coconut Pie; oh my!

If I had a family coat of arms it would be a chicken on a field of noodles wearing a coconut hat; that's if I had a crest. I will undoubtedly choose coconut over any other candy and love spring because Passover comes with the most delicious macaroons but that's for another post.

Last week was spent on the edge of the Arizona desert with my sister, Doodles and her husband and their somewhat rambunctious young cat, Bogart. Given enough time together Doodles and I will always find an antique shop to poodle through and this trip the find was an 8 inch glass pie plate.

My stove at home has a small, nine inch wide side oven and I've been trying to find a pie plate for about two years. Doodles is a full-time gypsy and her RV has a small oven as well. You can only imagine the joy we both experienced to find not one but a stack of old class pie plates; we each bought one.

When I got home I was dying to try it. Well, I was needing something sweet and it was sitting on my counter. Any who, I made a blind pie shell and got out my Bird's custard. Since the pie is so small I thought one pint would be enough. It should have been a bit more but it worked. Bird's is quite easy to use just add the milk and a bit of sugar. I toast my coconut because I love that flavor and texture and it's easy in a dry skillet. Toast twice as much as you need because you'll find yourself nibbling on it as the pie cools in the fridge. Or, that might just be me.

To the pud I added a handful, or so, of coconut and pour it into the shell. Just a word of warning; make sure you cook your pudding long enough or you'll have, what are darling mother used to refer to as, "spoon" pie. Not a complete failure but the filling was a bit soft which meant the whipped cream topping pushed it out of shape and when cut, the filling gushed out the sides. As a matter of fact it was mostly whipped cream but when has that ever been a bad things.

A little hint for whipping the cream, to the 1 cup of heavy cream, whipped to a very soft peak, I added 3 heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar and about 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Then whipped the heck out of it. Don't forget to sprinkle on a bit of toasted coconut just in case you forget what kind of pie it is. Yeah, like that would happen.