This is still one of my favorite coconut cream pie recipes. It's easy and it's made with pantry staples like milk, cornstarch, sugar, butter and a little vanilla. Oh, and coconut. Can't forget that! But the key ingredient and the reason I like this pie is that it uses milk. If our milk isn't getting used quickly enough, I'll make this pie.
New Improved Version
I've made some changes to this pie since first posting. The original version made less pastry cream and filled a smaller pie dish. Most people use 9-inch pie dishes now, so I scaled the recipe up to fit a standard 9-inch dish. I also made some changes to the pastry cream to make it smoother.
Smooth Pastry Cream With Cornstarch
My new recipe is based on the old Boston Cooking School recipe, but slightly sweeter and thickened with cornstarch. It will be like a creamy pudding when warm, but after chilling it should be creamy and just stiff enough not to run.
Coconut Cream Pie Crust
For a pastry crust you can use the Baked All-Butter Crust recipe or you can make a homemade graham cracker crust using your favorite recipe or the one I put in the notes.
Recipe
Favorite Coconut Cream Pie
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 9 inch baked pie crust store bought or homemade
Filling:
- ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (162 grams)
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch (40 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large egg yolks
- 3 cups whole milk (24 oz)
- 2 tablespoons butter (salted) (28 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- ½ teaspoon coconut extract
- 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut plus an extra ½ cup for toasting
Topping:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3T to ⅓ cup powdered sugar (to taste!)
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Have your baked pie crust ready.
- In a heavy nonstick 3 quart saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and salt.
- Whisk half the cold milk into the dry mixture, then add the yolks and whisk until smooth. Whisk in remaining cold milk until smooth.
- Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and bubble. This should take about 5 or 6 minutes. Once it thickens and big bubbles start to break the surface, continue whisking over low heat for about 3 minutes. Don't skip this step or the filling may thin out.
- Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla and coconut. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with a piece of wax paper and let cool to about lukewarm. Note: If you want, you can put it through a sieve before adding the butter and vanilla. Let the pie filling cool for about half an hour, then add the coconut. Let cool to room temperature.
- Scrape the cooled pie filling into the baked crust.
- Place in refrigerator to chill for 3 hours or more. At some point, toast the extra coconut (see note at bottom)
- When the pie has chilled, prepare whipped cream topping. In a large bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar (start with 3 tablespoons and increase to taste) and vanilla beat until peaks are stiff. Spread over top of pie. Sprinkle with toasted, cooled coconut.
- To toast coconut, lay it on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes or until edges turn brown. Stir every 2 minutes or so.
connie says
love this recipe.....
Leslie says
I still have to perfect my pie crust making skills. Your pie looks yummy! 🙂
Anna says
Glad to hear it worked out for you :).
Total Roef says
Hooray!
My girlfriend has been asking me for years, but I finally could give her a good creampie! The filling turned out realy good!
Debbi says
Ok, the coconut chewiness wasn't as bad the next day. In fact, this tasted way, way better the next day (as many desserts do). I changed my mind. I wouldn't change a thing. Super delicious!
Debbi says
I made this pie this afternoon and just came home from seeing Ratatouille with the kids and had the coconut creme pie for dessert. It is very good. If there is such thing as coconut extract, I think that I would use some of that and less real coconut as it was very chewy with coconut. I used the Pillsbury roll out crust and it turned out fine. I think that I will use a graham cracker crust if I make it again. My husbands favorite is coconut creme he likes it so I'll most likely be making it again.
Anj says
Anna, that is a beautiful pie. My most favorite pie is coconut. I like the cream topping better than meringue too. The crust looks awesome -- good job!
Anna says
The recipe above always works very well for me. It isn't the easiest dough to handle (though it's not terrible), but the resulting crust is always flakey and light without being greasy.
Last night I got an email recommending Dorie Greenspan's crust. I'm going to definitely give that one a try.
hippydippy says
I could never make a decent pie crust til i used a recipe like the one you posted. i still have major pie issues, but that's for my blog, not yours LOL