12668 Makes one 9-inch single-crust pie Wed Aug 06 07:40:14 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 04 06:28:57 -0800 2009 Licensed http://www.chow.com/recipes/12668 Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:28:57 GMT Jen coveted an extraordinary coconut cream pie from a pie place in Palominas, Arizona. Because her diplomatic attempts to attain the recipe were unsuccessful, we worked long and hard to figure out how to recreate this high, silky, ethereal, and creamy pie. This would be great with freshly shaved coconut too.

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Fully blind-bake the crust (see page 15) until it is golden brown; set aside to cool completely before filling it with pudding.

Measure ⅔ cup of the milk into a wide bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over it and let it soften for 5 minutes, whisk together, and set the bowl aside.

Separate the eggs—put the yolks into the bowl of an electric mixer and put the whites into a separate bowl until later.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining 1⅓ cups milk and the coconut. When the milk forms small bubbles at the edge and gets steamy, remove the pan from the heat.

With the electric mixer, whip the yolks and sugar until light in color and a smooth and ribbony design is left by the whisk. With the mixer on low speed, pour in 1 cup of the hot milk in a slow steady stream to temper the eggs. Whisking constantly, pour the egg mixture into the milk and return the pan to the heat. Stir constantly with a whisk over medium heat until slightly thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the milky gelatin.

Add the vanilla and salt. (If you want even more coconut, you can stir a cup more into the filling.) Pour the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate it, covered, for 2 hours or until it is cold and thickened up.

With an electric mixer, whip the cold pudding until it is really smooth (it will be pretty dense and gelatinous at first). There should be no lumps. Separately, whip the cream until stiff. Fold the whipped pudding and cream together gently with a rubber spatula. Separately, whip the egg whites until stiff. Fold the whipped egg whites into the creamy pudding. Mound the mixture into the crust and smooth it with an offset spatula. Top it with additional toasted coconut.

Chill the pie for a couple of hours before cutting and store it in the refrigerator. Use toothpicks to prop up plastic wrap to cover the pie. It will last up to 3 days refrigerated.

]]> http://www.chow.com Ron Silver and Jen Bervin 50 Main Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie, blind-baked and chilled, such as Bubby's All-Butter Pastry Pie Dough (page 23) or Basic Butter and Shortening Pastry Pie Dough (page 27)

]]> 2 cups milk, divided

]]> 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin

]]> 6 large eggs

]]> 1 cup unsweetened toasted coconut, plus extra for topping the pie

]]> 1 cup sugar

]]> 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

]]> Pinch salt

]]> 1½ cups heavy cream

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