COCONUT PIE: "Me Oh My, I Love Pie"

One of my sources for great recipes is my sister, Marsha Kay Crawford Blackmon. She is an excellent cook and has shared some of the best of my favorite recipes with me. One of those priceless finds is her recipe for coconut pie.  It is a family recipe from her mother-in-law and can be used for almost any flavor of cream pie. The first time I experienced this pie was on a Christmas visit to my home town, Ft. Worth, Texas.  

We had a great meal at my sister's and were all choosing our dessert for the closure of the meal. She had made a coconut cream, a chocolate cream and, I think, a pumpkin pie. As is my habit, I could not choose just one, so I had a sliver of each. Have you ever asked for just a “sliver”? A sliver is one of those measurements that is relative to opinion and desire. All three of my sister’s desserts were amazing, but since coconut is high on the favorites list, it won the prize for best. Her crust was perfect. The cream filling was so rich, so smooth with just enough chewy flakes of coconut and the perfect hint of vanilla. Then it was topped with a very thick layer of whip cream which covered the pie completely.

One of the most important parts of any pie is of course the crust. My friend, Cheryl Roach, who I mentioned in the coconut cake post, gave me, in my opinion, the best pie crust recipe ever.  It's not only the best but the easiest also. It's an oil crust and produces a very flakey yet tender delight. The holiday season is coming up. What a great time to try this pie or one of it's versions. Make one ahead of the holiday to test. Every excuse for pie is a great excuse.

PIE CRUST

2 cups flour

1 pinch salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup cold milk

wax paper

pie weights or dried beans or rice

Measure flour and salt into bowl and mix well. Add oil and milk and mix with a fork. 

Finish mixing with your hands, forming a ball and then a disc. Place a piece of wax paper large enough to roll the dough onto, on a smooth counter.  

Place this disc in the center. Tear another piece of paper off the same size as the first and place it on top. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough between the paper. No extra flour is required. This dough is very soft. If at anytime it tears it can be molded into shape.  Pull the top paper off and pick up the bottom paper with the dough on it. 

Turn the dough onto your pie plate and peel off the paper. Smooth any cracks or bumps and make your desired edge of the pie.  If one side has too much dough and another missing some, just tear off and piece and smooth out with fingers.  

You could use a fork to press the edges or your fingers to make a scallop.  You could also cut out hearts or small leaves and place them around the edge.Let your creativity be guided by your imagination.  

You will want to cook this shell without the filling if you are making the cream pie. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place a piece of wax paper into bottom of shell.  If you prefer, you can cut this sheet into a circle before placing it. Add enough beans or rice or weights to cover bottom of the shell well. 

Cook for about 20 minutes or until it's almost to your desired brownness. When it needs 3 to 5 more minutes, carefully take the paper and weights out. Place the crust back into the oven until finished browning.  This will allow the bottom of the crust to be sure and finish cooking and not be doughy. 

CREAM PIE

2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 egg yolks or one whole egg

1 cup sugar  
1 teaspoon vanilla (Mexican is the best)

1 tablespoon flour  
1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)

Pinch of salt  
8 oz Cool Whip or 1 pint sweetened whipping cream
2 cups milk                                     

or meringue (I prefer Cool Whip or cream)

For Chocolate pie add: 3 tablespoons cocoa

For Coconut pie add: 1 cup coconut

For Banana pie add: 1-2 ripe bananas

Sift or mix together with a fork the cornstarch, sugar, flour and salt (and cocoa if making chocolate). Pour 2 cups of milk into a saucepan. Place dry ingredients in 
milk and whisk until well mixed. Stir until warm but not hot. If making meringue, separate the egg. Beat the egg yolk or egg well and add into 1/4 cup of warm mixture. Beat this mixture well. Whisk back into pan as you pour it in. Cook until it is thick. When the mixture boils, you will know the thickening agents are cooked and have finished thickening. Stir or whisk often while thickening.  Add the vanilla and butter by whisking and folding gently to prevent the butter from splashing out. Add coconut or banana as desired and pour into baked pie shell. Add cool whip, whipped whipping cream or meringue to top. If using meringue brown in oven. Cool at room temperature for a while and then chill.

Cream topped

Roasted coconut makes a great final addition to a cream topped pie

MERINGUE AS PIE TOPPING

Meringue seems to be the traditional topping for cream pies. If you wish to top this cream pie with meringue, I suggest you use at least 2 egg whites.  A cafe I love to visit in Fredericksburg, Texas, uses 9 egg whites for their meringue.  Obviously the more whites, the higher the meringue. If you use more than 4 egg whites, increase the other ingredients proportionally. You can easily double the recipe.

4 egg whites

1 pinch cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Cover the pie with the topping making sure you touch the crust all around with the meringue.  This will help prevent it from pulling away from the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before chilling or slicing.

Tips:

1. When making an oil crust, don’t allow the formed shell to sit very long because the oil begins to come to surface of shell and hurts the final texture.
2. Dried beans work great as pie weights.  You can also buy pie weights that are usually small metal discs but they must be washed and are not inexpensive. I prefer beans over rice because they are easier to manipulate, but when I’m out of beans, rice works well.  Sometimes I store my pie beans in a jar after they cool and reuse them several times before tossing.
3. As you probably know, quality of ingredients makes all the difference in cooking or baking.  Mexican vanilla, which is pure and intense, is one of those quality finds. After using it, I really don’t like many other vanillas and it is really hard for me to use vanilla flavoring instead of pure vanilla. If you cannot find Mexican vanilla, another pure vanilla is usually available in all grocery stores. It makes all the difference and helps take a recipe from average to exceptional.

Coconutty Deliciousness

How do you feel about coconut? Coconut seems to conjure extreme emotion. Most people can be categorized into two groups: lovers or haters of coconut. I am definitely a coconut lover. Whatever form it is in, from sweetened and flakey to unsweetened milk or hunks of soft fresh flesh to coconut water, it is all delicious to me. When you add my appreciation for the white coconut goodness to my equal passion for deserts, the pleasure of the experience grows exponentially. There are three coconut deserts that are always at the top of my favorite desserts list. Appropriately, one is a cake, one a pie and one a cookie. 

“Wonderful Coconut Cake”

The first time I tasted this cake recipe, I was truly in ”wonder” (yes the title really does include the adjective wonderful).  I had never tasted a cake with such coconut deliciousness. I also had by this time in my life (I was in my mid 30s) developed a pretty good ability to breakdown a recipe by taste.  This ability was increased if I was with one of my foodie friends and we could brainstorm about the breakdown.  However, with this recipe I was stumped. No matter how hard my friend, Cheryl Roach, and I tried, we could not decipher the recipe.  Our frustration and challenge was increased because the lady that made the cakes would not share her recipe! Although Cheryl and I had personal conviction about sharing any recipe with any who requested, we could not put our convictions on her. It was understandable that the cake lady wouldn’t share because she sold the cakes as a side business and due to their ever increasing popularity she could sell them quite often.  Well, Cheryl and I were relentless. We would take turns purchasing the cakes and then get together to try and figure out the ingredients. We were enjoying the task, but were afraid we were going to gain weight at the rate we were eating. We knew the cake was a simple white cake so we put our attention on the icing. Of course the outer coating of flaked coconut was pretty obvious, but it seemed to be extra fresh. The creamy, fluffy, sweet white icing continued to stump us.  The sweetness was from granulated sugar. We thought the fluffiness was whipped cream. There was also a slight tang that could have been from sour cream or cream cheese but we weren’t sure. The texture was also slightly different from whipped cream, being a little firmer and silkier. We were about to tire of our efforts when Cheryl had a miraculous conversation with the “cake lady”.  Cheryl asked her one more time if she would mind sharing and to Cheryl’s surprise she agreed.  It was awesome. Cheryl went straight to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients and called me.  We got together and made the cake. We were on the right track with the ingredients but I don’t think we could have ever guessed the quantities. The cake was a white cake mix, we like Duncan Hines the best. The icing was sour cream, granulated sugar and cool whip. We discovered the coconut was special because it was fresh frozen. We had to substitute the common sweetened grated variety after a few years because we couldn’t find the fresh frozen in our local stores anymore. After years of making this cake, I tried whipped cream instead of cool whip, which in my opinion, gives even better results.   I make a layer cake 99% of the time because the icing touches more cake surface area. Try this cake for a special birthday or Thanksgiving or Christmas or enjoy it with a fellow coconut lover.

WONDERFUL COCONUT CAKE

1 White cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines but Betty Crocker Super Moist is good too)

3 Packages of fresh frozen coconut (18 oz) or 1 large package of grated sweetened (such as Angel Flake by Bakers)

Quantities of egg, water and oil suggested on cake mix box

16 oz Sour cream

8 oz Cool Whip or 3 half pints of whipping cream whipped to soft peaks. You will need 6 to 7 cups of whipping cream. (if you use the whipping cream,  add 3/4 cup sugar just before soft peaks are formed)

2 cups sugar (you can cut the sugar to 1 1/2 cups for a tangier icing)

Bake cake mix according to package directions in three layers. (see Tip 1) For the icing, mix sour cream and sugar until sugar is dissolved. If you are using whipping cream, whip until there are soft peaks and then add sugar slowly while whipping. Continue to whip until nice peaks form. Fold in cool whip or whip cream. Begin icing each layer until all layers are iced and stacked nicely. Remember to reserve at least half of icing for sides and top. Ice sides and top.  Open coconut and begin to sprinkle it all over sides and top covering well. The original recipe says to refrigerate the cake for three days before serving. This allows icing to soak well into cake.  It is delicious, but we can seldom wait three days to enjoy.

The pictures for this cake show fruit added to the top.  Most of the time the coconut by itself is what I prefer, but the fruit is a fresh and festive addition.

Tips:

1. You can cut the layers in half making six layers and increase the surface area exposed to icing even more. The more surface exposed to icing, the more moist the cake is. You can cut perfect layers with dental floss.  Tear off a piece that will go around the middle of the layer with about twelve inches left over. Holding the floss on each end with each hand, place around middle of layer. Cross hands and floss where the floss meets and pull firmly but gently until it slices the cake in half.
2. The original recipe calls for part of coconut to be mixed into icing and between layers and the rest on outside, but I prefer to coat heavily on the outside making a giant white beautiful ball of fluff.

The cake, iced and ready for coconut

With the addition of the coconut flakes

With the addition of fruit

Bread: Still an Inspiration

This is an exciting new beginning for me in a great adventure to share my life.  As I thought of this first post, I asked myself, "How did I become a foodie?"  I pondered the many times I've learned and wondered while first experiencing the passion of food creation and consumption. This, as might be expected, began in my childhood. There were, of course, many times of delight during the consumption!  The range was broad, like the time I was four years old, sitting in Underwood's BBQ (a Texas restaurant chain starting in 1930, http://www.underwoodsbbq.com) waiting to eat their delicious fried chicken, which had already become a favorite with this southern child, even at four years. I was so excited that I couldn't stop hitting the heels of my shoes against the wooden booth, no matter how many times my kind and spoiling grandparents asked me not to. I can't forget all the slow-cooked roast lunches on Sundays, the Sunday night root beer floats or the weekday goulash with lots of cheddar cheese.  There are so many stories, but what about the passion for food creation that continues to grow in me today? Maybe the first was birthed at a Lofton family reunion (my great grandmother's family).  I was eight years old and it was a hot Texas summer in Ft. Worth's City Park under the cool shade of dozens of trees. I was sitting on a picnic table bench eating a soft and buttery homemade white bread roll. These rolls were made from scratch by my great aunt Flossie.  As I sat there in an earthly heaven, slowly enjoying every bite, I said to myself, "I will make these some day. I will learn to cook things like this, wonderful things."  So there the inspiration was fed and I was true to my word. I learned how to make bread. I never got Aunt Flossie's recipe, but I have found some rolls that are very close. The recipe I'm sharing with you is one I got from a teacher, Mrs. Petree, who taught at the old Butterfield school, my first teaching job. This recipe can be made into rolls or bread loaves. It's mildly sweet, tender, and did I already say soft and buttery, oh my, I'm drooling! Whether you are a veteran or a beginner at bread making, let the thought of these rolls inspire you to make them. For some, bread seems tricky, but if you follow the recipe, you should have great success.

White Bread

Ingredients:

1 Stick butter

1 Tablespoon salt

2 Cups milk

1 1/2 Packages of yeast (1scant Tablespoon)                                 

1/2 Cup sugar

5 1/2 to 6 Cups bread flour (all purpose may also be used)
1 Stick of butter melted for pans             

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, place the milk, sugar, salt and butter. Place on low or medium low until the butter melts.Take care to warm slowly, but not too slowly.  You don't want to burn the milk, but allow the warm milk to melt the butter. Cool the liquid to lukewarm or tepid.  The liquid should be barely warm to the touch. If it's cold, the yeast won't produce well. If it's too hot, it will kill the yeast. Do not be afraid, though. I know of a trick that will help you. Add the yeast to 1 cup of flour and stir well.  Add the yeast mixture to the liquids. Mix well (a whisk is very helpful for this).  Here's your trick to know if the yeast is working. Let the yeast and liquid mixture stand for a couple of minutes or so. If it starts to bubble, the yeast is working. Once you know the yeast is, in fact, breeding, add about 4 cups of flour with a spoon (I prefer wooden).  If it's sticky, add a little more flour, usually not to exceed 6 cups total. The dough should be nice and soft, but not sticky.  Knead several minutes. Place it back into a large bowl. You might want to lightly oil the bowl to prevent the dough from sticking. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warmer place in your kitchen. The warmth is not essential, but allows the reaction of the yeast to be at full potential.  Let rise about 30 minutes or so, until there is an obvious increase in volume.  Decide if you want to make rolls or loaves.

Loaves:  Pour out on a floured board (probably between 1/2 and 1 cup of flour) and knead enough to take the air out of it. Keep some flour handy in case your board gets too sticky. 
Divide into 3 parts for small loaves or 2 parts for large loaves.  Place melted butter in each pan. Enough to cover all sides and bottom with slight pooling.  Too much butter will keep the bottoms from browning well. Even though I know this, I sometimes make this mistake because of my love for butter crusts. Roll each part out in a rectangle or square and roll into a loaf. Pinch the dough at the seam and place seam side down in buttered pans. Using a soft brush (silicone is good), brush the tops with butter.

Rolls: Pour out on a floured board (probably between 1/2 to 1 cup of flour) and knead enough to take the air out of it. Keep some flour handy in case your board gets sticky when forming rolls. Using from a 9x13 to 11x17 inch pan, butter the pan a little more than you did for the loaves. This will allow you to place the rolls in the butter and then roll them over, covering the tops too. If you are a beginner at making rolls, the size of your rolls can be determined by dividing the dough evenly. You will probably want 2 dozen rolls per pan. Divide the dough into fourths. Divide each fourth into even thirds.  Taking one of the rolls, smooth out top and pinch bottom together. Place top of roll in butter and turn over placing pinched side down into butter. Let loaves or rolls rise until almost double.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Turn out onto cooling racks or plate.  Butter tops again.  If you possibly can, let them cool a little before cutting or breaking open to place butter and honey or your favorite jam.  This bread toasts very well with a nutty crunch.

Well, there it is. My first gift to you. My first posted recipe. The first of many life stories. 

There are so many more. I can't wait to share them with you.