Intense Coconut Cream Pie Recipe

Believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve ever had coconut cream pie before I made this recipe.  Boy, have I been missing out! Flaky pie crust, creamy coconut pudding, and fluffy whipped cream make this dessert a real pleasure to eat.  And it’s a pretty darn easy pie recipe, even for people who may not care for making pie.

 

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This recipe was originally published on August 1, 2019.  It was updated on April 14, 2022.

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My Personal Pie History

 

I love eating pie, but making pie hasn’t always been super fantastic.  Luckily, I’ve got a great pie crust recipe up my sleeve that gets better and better every time I make it.  Not too long ago, I made this Lemon Meringue Pie and I realized pie is just not my favorite thing to make.  That’s okay! You don’t have to love baking everything just because you love baking.

But I’ve decided to add more pies to my recipe list because I want to become the best amateur baker I can be.  Also, Josh actually loves pie and it’s the one thing I rarely bake. Well, not the one thing, but it’s rare. You catch my drift.

 

 

But Let’s Talk About Coconut Cream Pie

 

I mean, that’s why we’re all here, right?  Let’s break it down. In this Coconut Cream Pie, we’ve got pie crust, coconut custard, and whipped cream.  Now we’ll chat about how to make these easy pie components.  This recipe is much simpler than my pumpkin pie!

 

Pie Crust

 

My Great Grandmother’s pie crust has been the most reliable pie crust recipe and I will use it for almost any pie.  We won’t be baking the assembled pie at all, so the crust has to be fully baked.  And if it looks a bit ugly? Don’t worry about it!  You’re going to cover it up with coconut pudding and stabilized whipped cream.  

Make this even easier and assemble the pie crust the day before you bake.  I made the dough, rolled it out and lined a pie plate the night before. Just wrap up the pie plate nice and tight.  I popped it in the freezer the next morning to get super firm for 20 minutes while the oven preheated. Boom. Easy.

 

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Coconut Custard with Coconut Cream

 

Originally, this recipe was just a homemade vanilla custard tossed with toasted coconut. It was amazing, but I just felt that a coconut custard should actually use some coconut milk. Right? So I swapped out some of my whole milk for coconut cream.

When you’re cooking custard or pudding, you really need to go with the full fat options like whole milk and coconut cream. The fat and sugar in the recipe help prevent the mixture from curdling.  

 

 

Stabilized Whipped Cream

 

You can absolutely omit the gelatin in this recipe if you don’t want to deal with stabilized whipped cream.  If you will be serving this coconut cream pie indoors and eating it all within a day, regular whipped cream will work just fine.  Otherwise, stabilized whipped cream will hold its shape for several days and won’t melt the second it’s hit with some warm air.

I made a similar stabilized whipped cream for my Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes.  It’s really easy, but I wouldn’t call it foolproof. Make sure the gelatin has cooled down a bit, but isn’t set, otherwise you will have lumpy whipped cream.  I recommend having extra whipping cream on hand, just in case. Always have a backup plan!

 

Related Reading: Tropical Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

 

Blunders

 

First time I made this coconut cream pie, I tossed all of the toasted coconut into the filling and forgot to save some for the top. This time I remembered to set some aside, but that doesn’t mean there were no blunders…

I’ve heard tempering the gelatin with a bit of cream makes stabilized whipped cream foolproof. Although I’ve tried that before and ended up with lumps, I figured I’d try it out one more time. Yep. Lumpy whipped cream.

 

But here’s the beauty of this recipe. You cannot tell. Although the whipped cream looked ugly, the texture was fine and the toasted coconut covered it all up anyways!

 

 

Coconut Cream Pie Bliss

 

Turns out, Coconut Cream Pie is flippin’ fantastic!  This pie was creamy, sweet (but not too sweet), and had a nice toasted coconut flavor.  On top of all that, it’s a pretty easy pie to make. Since you only have to bake the crust, the rest of the pie comes together very easily. 

 

More Pie, Please!

 

I really do need to make more pies, and I have some ideas, but I’d love to hear from you. What other pie recipes do you want to see?  Could be sweet, savory, creamy, fruity, etc. Leave me a comment below!

And if you have a friend who loves pie as much as my aunt (she’ll sing the pie song if you bring her a pie), send them over here!  I need some pie connoisseurs up in here to amp up my pie game. Thanks and have a lovely day!! 

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