SUNDAY COOK: COCONUT BANANA CREAM PIE

Hmmmmmmmm now doesn't THAT sound GOOD!

Good thing I could go back into my photos for this Sunday Cook! It has been a CRAZY day and not so typical of Sunday's around here! With it being a BUSY camping weekend and most campers booked in until today - it meant a LOT of cleaning for us today. I only had a few hours of down time this afternoon - and what did I do with it?

NAPPED of course. I pretty much nap every afternoon - it's the only thing that keeps me going until 11:00 pm.

We've been enjoying our Coconut Banana Cream Pie for a few days now. Which is good, because I also now know how I would change it for next time. Check the bottom for my notes.

It has been awhile since we've had a really rich tasty treat around here and I figured it was HIGH time. Coconut was on my mind so off I went to my coconut LOVE pinterest board for the perfect dessert. I came across the Sunday Cook recipe from Jan CAN Cook.

So - here we go!

Coconut Pie Shell
1/2 cup butter
3 cups sweetened flack coconut

Pie Filling
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup flour
3 cups half and half, divided
yellow food colouring
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 bananas
1 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp powdered sugar

Melt the 1/2 cup butter in a large skillet over medium heat browning the coconut flakes, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. 

Until a golden brown. This starts off slow and then happens really fast. I was this close to burning it all because I walked over to read the recipe - I came back and they were done!

Press firmly and evenly into a 9" pie plate. Chill for 30 minutes.

Combine the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of sugar, the cornstarch, salt and flour in a small bowl. 

Gradually add 1 cup of the half and half.

Combine the remaining 2 cups of half and half and 1/2 cup sugar in a large sauce pan. Bring just to boil over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook and stir until the mixture returns to a boil and thickens, about 1 minute.

Remove from the heat. Stir in 2 drops of food colouring and the vanilla. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool. I popped it into the fridge.

Slice the bananas into the pie shell. 

Pour the filling into the shell.

Whip the cream with the powdered sugar until stiff. I've mentioned before that I start with placing my bowl and beaters in the freezer for 20 mins or so. 

Spoon the whipped cream in dollops (LOVE that word).

Chill 2 hours before serving.

Just LOOK at that CRUST! It's a keeper for sure!

NOW, BE FOREWARNED! 

This is a VERY rich dessert. We've really had to pace ourselves.

So - here are my thoughts and the changes I would make next time:

1. Before I even tried it I thought it strange that the pudding was vanilla and not coconut. I'm going to change that I thought to myself. WRONG. The coconut crust is ALL the coconut you need. But with that in mind....
2. I'd change the amount of coconut for the crust to 2 cups - I find the 3 cups makes a crust that is too thick and two sweet.
3. I didn't use the yellow food colouring. Sure the layers don't look much different but who needs food colouring.
4. A HUGE problem is that the banana doesn't stick well to the crust, so when you slice it tends to come apart. A way to avoid this would probably be to first fill the pie crust with the pudding, add the sliced banana and then top with the whipped cream. I don't mind the banana flavour but I think I'd be just as happy without them and go straight coconut.
5. I didn't find the whipped cream sweet enough - I'd probably add 1 1/2 tbsp to 2 tbsp powdered sugar.
6. I was also thinking to put the pudding through a sieve first to take out the lumps - but it doesn't seem to matter in the end.
7. I sprinkled some sweetened coconut over the whipped cream - it looked nice but I couldn't taste it at all and so not really necessary. Next time I'll skip that.

There you go! I hope you give it a try! Let me know how it turns out - ok!

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: During our last shopping trip I picked up another bag of lemons. I have been wanting to make Lemon Mousse for a LONG time now. A great memory since it was one of the things I learned in home economics class in junior high school. My recipe from then is packed away so I of course went back to pinterest. It went over REALLY well here!

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