French Coconut Pie-NYR-YYYY

8 inch pie:

4 T. (½ stick) butter, melted .
2 eggs, beaten
1 T. flour
¾ c. sugar
1 c. sweetened coconut
1 c. milk
1 (8 inch) unbaked pie shell (see November 26th blog "Apple Crumb Pie" for my pie dough recipe, which is for a 9 inch pie, so you'll have some pieces to sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake for 10 minutes)

9 inch pie:

6 T. butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
1½ T. flour
1 c. + 2 T. sugar
1½ c. sweetened coconut
1½ c. milk
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell (see November 26th blog "Apple Crumb Pie" for my pie dough recipe)

Preheat oven to 350º F. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, flour, sugar, coconut and milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake until firm, about 45 – 60 minutes.


I was going through my freezer the other day and discovered a partial bag of sweetened coconut. (This was left from my Ky State Fair entry of Key Lime Macaroons. Won't share that recipe yet as I plan to enter those again with a few tweeks to improve them, so perhaps they'll be a future winner.) Anyway, decided I needed to do something with that coconut, so went to FoodNetwork.com and found this recipe from Paula Deen. I was totally amazed it did not have a full stick of butter in it! The original directions gave the ingredient amounts that are listed for an 8 inch pie, but called for a 9 inch pie shell. However, I could just tell that would not fill the shell sufficiently, hence I increased the amounts to the amounts listed above for a 9 inch pie shell. This made a nicely filled pie and no overflow while baking.

I am so happy to give this recipe, which was tried as part of my New Year's Resolution (NYR)a much higher Yummy rating that I have been able to give some of the others. (Y being so-so and YYYYY being fabulous) Leave it to Paula Deen to come through! This pie will definitely be made again, as it not only tastes wonderful, but is so very easy to make.

Don't be afraid to make you own pie crust. It really just takes some practice to get the hang of rolling out the dough. Remember to let the rolling pin do the work-do not try to push the dough. Always keep a light touch. I have been making pie crust since I was about 12. That was the year we had "boatloads" of apples ready for pies in our freezer. This was thanks to our neighborhood farm owners, who offered Mom free apples that autumn. Mom had taken 3 of my friends and me to a movie. When she came to pick us up, she had my 2 older brothers with her. On the way home, we stopped at the farm, my brothers got to get up in the trees and shake the apples off, while my friends and I picked up bagfuls and bagfuls of apples. Then for several weekends, my grandma, my Aunt Betty, my mom, and I gathered in our kitchen to pare and slice apples and put them in bags along with the cinnamon/sugar/flour mixture used for pies to freeze. That next summer, while Mom was working, I must have made a pie about every week! So you can see, just practice, practice, practice!