Bite-Size Coconut Cream Pie

Bite-Size Coconut Cream Pie

Here's one more bite-size pie to add to the growing collection (see also Bite-Size Chocolate Cream Pie and Bite-Size Banana Cream Pie).  I've actually only eaten coconut cream pie once in my life, I think.  Maybe twice.  I remember it was super tasty, but when faced with a pie selection, usually something chocolaty wins out.  I don't eat a lot of pie, until I start making little bite-size versions like this.  This little morsel is cool, sweet, and really creamy.  
When I was looking for a coconut cream pie recipe, I read quite a few.  Some were as simple as mixing up a box of instant vanilla pudding (like I do with my banana cream pie bites and simple banana cream pie), but I wanted to try out a homemade custard.  Some recipes called for flour in the custard, and that just didn't sound right to me.  I found this one on Simply So Good, and I had to half the filling recipe because it would have been too much.  Certainly, if I was making these babies for a large crowd, I would have used the whole recipe and doubled the crust, but I really just wanted to post about them.  Fortunately we have an Easter gathering tomorrow I can bring these to.  I had to make some adjustments because halving 3/4 cup of something, or three egg yolks is too complicated.  What I came up with below seems to work.  I did add a little more coconut than the original recipe.  Feel free to adjust to your taste.  As always, if you try these out and like them, please add a comment below.  I love it when people try my recipes!  That's why I do this blogging thing, after all. 

Bite-Size Coconut Cream Pie

     --adapted from Simply So Good

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut, divided (I use sweetened)
• 1 batch of pie crust (see below)
• stabilized whipped cream (see below) or 1 cup heavy cream whipped with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread 1/3 cup coconut on a pan and toast at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until light brown.  Stir occasionally for even browning.  Set aside to cool. Then turn the oven up to 400 degrees to preheat further for the pie crust pieces.

Mix cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium size saucepan.  Add milk and cream and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly.  Pour a spoonful amount of hot mixture into egg yolks; blend thoroughly.  Add about 1/3 of the milk mixture to the egg yolks, then pour back into the saucepan.  Cook another 2 or 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.  Stir in 1/3 cup of the coconut.  Cover with plastic wrap and press plastic against the custard.  Refrigerate until completely chilled.

Meanwhile, prepare the pie crust pieces and the whipped cream.

Once filling and crusts are cool, spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip or a quart or gallon size zip top bag.  If you're using the zip top bag, once it's got the filling in it, cut about a half-inch or a little less off one corner. Also place whipped cream into pastry or zip top bags, preferably fitted with a star tip, but that's not absolutely necessary.

Squeeze about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling onto each little crust.  Then top with about a teaspoon of whipped cream.  Top it all off with  toasted coconut.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Makes 60-70 bite-size pies

Pie Crust Pieces

Ingredients:

(Note: you can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust, like from Pillsbury)

• 1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons Crisco
• 3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons ice cold water
• flour for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut 4 T butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Add ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball.  Flour a rectangular sheet of wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover with another rectangular sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about 1/8”.  With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough roughly into 1.5”x 1.5” squares.  You can also be creative and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

Place dough pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Prick each piece a few times with a fork.  Bake at 400°F for 11-13 minutes, or until browned on the edges.   Remove from oven. Cool completely before using for bite-size pies.

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting
--adapted from cdkitchen

• 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1 cup whipping cream
• pinch salt
• 2 tbsp confectioner's sugar

1. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl to soften.

Gelatin mixture--I let this get too firm in the fridge, but it worked.

2. Scald 2 tablespoon of the cream; pour over gelatin, stirring till dissolved.
3. Refrigerate until consistency of unbeaten egg white. (This takes about 10-15 minutes.) Then, with a whisk, beat until smooth. 
4. In a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or with a hand beater, whip remaining cream and sugar just until soft peaks form; whip in the smoothed gelatin mixture, stopping to scrape the bowl twice. You will probably only need to whip it another 10-20 seconds before it's done.

Fills and frosts top of 2 8" or 9" cake layers; or frosts 10" angel
cake or spongecake. Tops one standard 9" pie with some left over to enjoy from a spoon.  Stands up well, even in warm weather. Keep leftover frosting and any product topped with it in the refrigerator until ready to eat.