I made a coconut cream pie at Thanksgiving because it was a favorite of our visitor so it's still fresh in my mind. Sooooo good!

Last night we had coconut shrimp for dinner, another pie or even a coconut cake maybe in the near future.

Nancy

Oh that sounds SO GOOD!!!!! Coconut Cream is my favorite.

Oh my, the memories. That's one of my favorites.

When I was a kid, growing up in the DC area, Stephenson's Bakery had the best coconut custard pie. I remember driving home, in the front seat of my parents Plymouth, holding the black and white checkerboard box on my lap.

An old employee saved the recipe and many, many years ago the Washington Post published it. I make it now and then, and it's always a hit.

Enjoy your pie

momj47, any chance you are willing to post the recipe from the Washington Post, please.

Bulldinkie, I'll trade you a dish of warm, from scratch, banana pudding, with meringue on top, for a slice of that yummy coconut cream pie.

jude

Old-timers may have forgotten the name Stephenson's, but they remember the pie boxes, large black-and-white checkerboards. And they remember the coconut custard pie, somehow more eggy and delicate than any tasted since. Frank Clements of Crusty Pie Co. used to work at Stephenson's - which, until recently, was still providing pies from a kitchen stove to a few friends and at least one office lunchroom - and he retained the recipe though the bakery no longer exists.

STEPHENSON COCONUT CUSTARD PIE (Makes 1 pie)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
4 eggs
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coconut
1 deep 9-inch or 10-inch pie crust, uncooked

Combine sugar, salt and cornstarch. Beat eggs and add to dry ingredients. Beat in milk and vanilla. Sprinkle coconut over bottom of pie crust, then pour in the egg mixture. Bake 1 hour at 400 degrees, or reduce oven to 350 degrees if top is browning before the bottom crust has cooked thoroughly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Washington Post Archives Recipes

BullDinkie, coconut cream pie was my favourite for years and years. I've never made one though. Cobbler is so easy, I just put one in the oven. I'll have to look into making a cream pie.
Do you make your own crust?

yes I make my own dough,when I was a Tupperware dealer in the 70s they had a plastic sheet you rolled dough out on with a recipe used it ever since,the recipe for coconut cream pie is easy,make custard take off ad coconut,make the topping just egg white vanilla,I think cream tarter.mmm my favorite,the ones you get in resturants is awful.

Aren't coconut cream and coconut custard different?

Looks like a great basic recipe to me, which just goes to show that sometimes the basics are that for a reason. I love coconut most anything and love coconut custard pie almost more than anything.

Yes Ded, coconut cream pie is cooked coconut custard put into a baked pie shell and usually has whipped cream topping. Coconut custard is a baked custard pie, baked in an unbaked pie shell, often with nothing on top.

Yum dinkie, now you have me wanting a Coconut creme pie all to my self, and I am seriously Pie challenged :(

Thanks for the recipe, momj47. It sounds similar to one my grandmother used to make. I seem to recall she sprinkled nutmeg on top.

To me coconut cream is kind of pudding-y with perhaps whipped cream stirred in and on top. You can never get too much whipped cream. It's kind of runny, definitely not firm.

Coconut custard is firmer, holds it's shape when cut.

Gimme either one although I prefer coconut cream.

Although the title of this thread is "Coconut Creme Pie", the title of the recipe is "Coconut Custard Pie". I don't think I've had Coconut Custard Pie because what I've had has always had either whipped cream or meringue on top, and I'm not sure about the meringue. I seem to remember having had coconut meringue pie, however.

I love all things coconut when it comes to desserts, but I do not like it in curry or savory dishes. I have quite a bit of coconut milk on hand and have been wanted to make some sort of coconut ice cream with it but have not settled upon a recipe. Plus I do not have shredded coconut on hand at the moment. I would make the pie, but Kevin does not like coconut in desserts - just in curries - and so I would have to eat the whole pie myself - unless I could freeze portions of it.

Has anyone frozen this pie?

Lars

No its called coconut cream pie,it has a coconut custard base with a chiffon top.Coconut custard is all coconut custard.No chiffon there is a big difference I love coconut cream pie.I like coconut custard.

We always have homemade whipped cream on our pie - cream or custard, it's glorious. My grandmother's "butter pie" is a vanilla custard pie with a meringue top. Too each his own, I guess.

I'm sorry - I'm not feeling well today and got confused. I've been sick since Friday morning.

So what is the recipe for coconut cream pie with custard base and chiffon top? Is the chiffon made separately? I don't think I've ever had that either. The coconut cream pie that I've had was made with a custard filling and whipped cream top. I'm not familiar with chiffon pies - perhaps it is a regional thing, but I like chiffon cakes and used to make those as a child.

Lars

My coconut cream pie is cooked vanilla custard with coconut added after it is cooked and poured in a baked pie shell. Topped with meringue that is sprinkled with coconut and baked in the oven until light brown and the coconut is toasted.

Next dumb question. What is chiffon if it is on top of a pie? I always thought chiffon was a kind of cake or pie, not a topping (or a fabric). Not trying to stir up trouble, just curious.

That coconut custard pie recipe looks really good!! I will try to make it soon. Thanks.

Also.....wondering about a "chiffon" pie topping? Maybe I need to learn how to make one???

Bulldinkie, that was exactly my understanding of coconut cream pie, that the shell is baked first, then a pudding/custard filling is cooked on the stovetop, poured into the shell, and topped with meringue or whipped cream, either is technically "optional", but not in my opinion, LOL.

Coconut custard is a custard filling, poured into an unbaked pie shell and baked in the shell. Or at least that's what it is here.

Chiffon? In my world, a chiffon pie is a creamy pie with a cooked filling, but with something folded in to "lighten" it, like a chocolate pudding base with whipped cream folded in.

However, Grandma used to differentiate between meringue and a whipped cream topping. Meringue was of egg whites and was baked, chiffon was the creamy topping, so the same lemon pie could be "Lemon Meringue" or "Lemon Chiffon", based only upon what she put on top of it. A plain old chocolate pie with a dollop of whipped cream became so much more elegant when it became chocolate chiffon, and the only difference was that she spread the topping over the whole pie, then cut it, as opposed to a spoonful of topping on the cut piece of pie.

I liked "chiffon" better because there was more topping, or at least I thought there was. Is that technically correct? Darned if I know, LOL, but it's what I knew growing up, so if chiffon topping is different than just whipped cream topping, I want to know how to make it too!

Annie

Upon googling chiffon pie, it seems for the most part chiffon pie has gelatin or beaten egg whites or both in the filling. One recipe sounded an awful lot like the lemon icebox pie with sweetened condensed milk that was so popular in this area in the 1950-60's. I always thought that that pie was the catalyst for graham cracker crusts becoming so popular, too. In fact that is the only kind of pie that I really care for with a graham cracker crust. I remember my sweet MIL started using those crusts for a lot of her pies. That was a shame because her pie crusts were good! And forget the bought ones, as far as I'm concerned.:)

Lord, we do have opinions don't we!!!! Most people know apple pie is my favorite so I don't even have to worry about it.lol

jude

So, is French coconut pie the same as Coconut Custard pie? I love both Coconut Cream & what I know as French coconut, although I lost my recipe for French coconut a long time ago so can't compare. Seems like the ingredients are the same, & it was baked in the oven.

French Coconut Pie has no milk/cream in it. Instead of a milk custard it has sugar and eggs and usually butter mixed together with the coconut and then baked. The finished pie is dense, yummy thick with coconut. I like that too. LOL. The pie man at the French Market Flea Market sold those in the 6" size. I can taste one now.

Ngraham, I did a little digging and all the French Coconut recipes I came across had the same ingredients.

French Coconut Pie

1 unbaked pie crust
3 eggs
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C. melted butter
1 C. coconut

Most recipes say to bake at 350 for an hour, but one recipe, that I'm linking to has an interesting temp change during cooking. I like that method and plan to try it soon. Really soon. Smiles.

Here is a link that might be useful: French Coconut Pie

Yum! Thanks coconut-nj, I'm going to have to try that one. I didn't really think I remembered the pie tasting "custardy", but I haven't seen or tasted one in literally decades. I'm not sure I ever made it myself, but I remember getting the recipe from a woman at a pot luck. I do think it seemed a little like chess pie with coconut, so the recipe makes sense. And I've seen several chess pies recipes where you reduce the temp too, although never reducing twice. I'll try that.