First up, the lemon coconut cream pie. I'll admit it. This one was all about ME. No one within my immediate family likes coconut. I, on the other hand, love it. Now see, this benefits me around Halloween when Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars are discovered amongst all of the trick or treat booty. I eat them all up and do not have to share with anyone. Any other time of the year, I go without the coconut. It's a bit silly to make a coconut-centric dessert when I am the only one that will eat it. So, this time around, my excuse was that our visitors might like this particular pie as an option (should the chocolate/peanut butter combo not be their "thing"). I'm not sure that my husband really bought into this excuse, but it made me feel better :) This pie was lemony and creamy with just a tad bit of texture from the sweetened coconut. Making this pie that much better....the lightly browned meringue. I've never made a meringue topping before and have to say, I love the way it elevated the appearance of this pie. I finished off the pie with a sprinkling of toasted coconut.
Coconut
Lemon Pie
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/3 c
all purpose flour
1 Tbsp
sugar½ tsp salt
3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 Tbsp all vegetable shortening
4-5 Tbsp ice water
Filling:
½ c
sugar
½ c
all-purpose flour2 ¼ c whole milk
4 egg yolks
1 c sweetened, flaked coconut
3 Tbsp butter
2 tsp lemon zest
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Garnish: toasted sweetened, flaked coconut
Directions:
In a
large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt for crust; stir well. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter and
shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time,
over flour mixture, tossing until moistened.
Gather dough into a ball. Wrap in
plastic wrap; refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat
oven to 400 degrees F.
On a
floured surface, roll dough into a 12 inch circle. Transfer to a 9 inch pie plate, pressing into
the bottom and up the sides. Fold excess
dough under; flute edges as desired.
With a fork, generously prick bottom and sides of dough. Place a sheet of parchment paper in piecrust. Add pie weights on top of parchment paper.
Bake
until edges of crust begin to brown, approximately 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees
F. Carefully remove pie weights. Bake until lightly browned, approximately 20
minutes longer. Remove from oven; let
cool completely on a wire rack.
In a
large saucepan, combine sugar and flour for filling; whisk in milk. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly,
stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
In a
medium bowl, place egg yolks; whisk in 1 cup hot milk mixture. Return egg yolk to remaining hot milk mixture
in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until
thick and bubbly, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat.
Add
coconut, butter, lemon zest and juice. Stir
until butter melts. Spoon mixture into prepared
piecrust. Place a sheet of plastic wrap
on surface of filling. Refrigerate until
chilled.
Remove plastic
wrap. Spoon meringue onto center of pie
filling, spreading within 1 inch of crust.
Using your fingers or back of a spoon, pull meringue into tall
peaks. Using a kitchen torch, lightly
brown top of Meringue. Garnish with
toasted coconut, if desired.
Directions:
In the
top half of a double boiler, whisk together sugar and egg whites. Place over simmering water, whisking
constantly until sugar is dissolved and egg whites are warm to the touch,
approximately 3 to 4 minutes.
Transfer egg white mixture to the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Beat at low speed with the whisk attachment for 2 minutes. Increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form and mixture cools, approximately 6 minutes
Finally, the chocolate peanut butter pie. If this is a combo that you are typically fond of, then this will not disappoint. There are many steps to this recipe, but much like the recipe above, the recipe is well worth the effort. This pie is rich and light at the same time. It's important to note that this pie tastes best when served cold.
As much as the coconut lemon pie was for me, this pie was for everyone else. I must say my guests were very happy with the selection and most ended up trying slices of both.
Peanut
Butter and Chocolate Pie
Ingredients:
Crust:
2 ½ c
all purpose flour
1 c
butter, chilled and cut into pieces
3 Tbsp
firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp
kosher salt
5 Tbsp
heavy whipping cream
Chocolate
Filling:
8 oz
semisweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 c
heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp
light corn syrup
1 tsp
vanilla extract
½ tsp
kosher salt
Peanut
Butter Filling:
2 c
creamy peanut butter, melted and slightly cooled
3 c
heavy whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks
1 tsp
vanilla extract
Garnish
w/melted semisweet chocolate
Directions:
In the
work bowl of a food processor, combine flour, butter, brown sugar and salt for
crust. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
With food processor running, add cream in a slow steady stream until
mixture forms a dough. Shape into a disk
and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate until firm, approximately one hour.
On a
lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Transfer to a 9 inch deep dish pie plate,
pressing dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Crimp as desired. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees F. Prick bottom and
sides of dough with a fork. Place a
piece of parchment paper into the pan; letting paper overlap the sides. Fill with pie weights. Bake until crust is lightly golden,
approximately 12-15 minutes. Let cool on
rack.
In a
large bowl, combine chocolate, cream, corn syrup, vanilla and salt for
chocolate filling. Microwave on high in
30 second intervals, until mixture is melted, stirring to combine. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Freeze until firm, approximately 30 minutes.
In a
large bowl, gently fold together peanut butter, whipped cream and vanilla
extract for peanut butter filling. Spoon
over chocolate filling. Refrigerate
until firm, approximately one hour.
Drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired.
I hope you enjoy trying out these recipes. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Father's Day. I made today all about my husband and will be sharing those recipes in a future blog. They include Huevos con Chorizo w/steamed tortillas and chocolate hazelnut tart (also from the same magazine as the recipes in todays post). I look forward to continuing to share my kitchen adventures with each of you.
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