Mini Coconut Cream Pies

I am a little sad I have not gotten more of my cookbook project done. Whenever I need a recipe, I look through all my cookbooks to see what options I have. It is quite interesting sometimes all the variations. I was very surprised when I looked up coconut cream pie, only four of my cookbooks had a recipe for it. Two of them were Betty Crocker, a 1920 Metropolitan Insurance cookbook and a variation in a Watkins Cookbook. I am not sure if coconut cream pie is just so simple, it was not included in most cookbooks or it was just popular in the 60s. For coconut cream pie is very very simple, I was pleasantly surprised. Can you make a corn starch pudding? Can you beat egg white? Then you can make Coconut Cream Pie!

I ended up using a basic Betty Crocker recipe, heavily modified. For one thing, I decided to make it dairy free (for my sister) and since there are less people in the house, I wanted to make mini pies instead of a full size pie. In keeping with dairy free, instead of a traditional whipped cream topping I used a meringue on top. What are you going to do with the left-over egg whites anyway? You can also make this recipe using regular milk, but the coconut milk adds to the tropical flavor!

 Coconut Cream Pie-Dairy Free

makes one dozen mini pies

Filling:

1/3 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Cornstarch

1 1/2 cups Coconut Milk

2 Egg Yolks

1 tablespoon Margarine

3/4 cup Shredded Coconut

Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Stir in coconut gradually. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute. Stir a cup or two of the hot mixture gradually into the egg yolks, then blend into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir one minute. Remove from heat, stir in margarine and coconut. Pour into a bowl and let cool in refrigerator.

Make half a recipe of Perfect Pie Crust using all shortening. Cut out 6-8" circles and pat into cupcake tin. Bake in oven until done. Remove from pan and cool. When cool, spoon coconut pudding into crusts. Make a meringue by beating the two egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tarter until foamy, then beat in 1/4 cup sugar until stiff and glossy. Swirl meringue on top of pies.