Pie. There are so many things you can do with it.

You can compete in pie making contests.

You can also compete in pie eating contests. (I think you’ll agree with me that might be the better option.)

You can play the clown. You can reward yourself with pie. Or console yourself.

Or, you can also plead your blog readers for forgiveness after being silent for 2 long months.

Yes, I’m guilty of bad food blogger. But, I am also the type of person to take new year’s resolutions in the middle of February. (It’s never too late, right?)
So let’s just say I’m back with a plan of action recipe posting, and you really don’t want to stay mad at me. Nope. Not when I’m offering you in exchange such a delicious pie recipe 😛

PS: if you are wondering where I’ve been gone for so long, head over to my personal blog 🙂

Coconut Custard Chocolate Pie

Pie crust

• 8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup and 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• 1-2 tbsp water

Custard

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch salt
• 3-3/4 cups milk
• 5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten in small bowl
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Toppings

• whipping cream
• toasted unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions

1. Begin with pie crust. Place all ingredients in food processor (start with only 1 tbsp water, add 0.5-1tbsp more only if needed) and process until they all come together into a homogenous dough mixture. (If mixing by hand or with hand mixer, first mix separately dry ingredients and wet ingredients, then combine both together.) Form ball out of the dough, wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. While you refrigerate the dough, begin making the custard. In saucepan over medium heat, place sugar, flour, and salt. Stir in milk. (If any lumps form, do not worry too much — they’ll go away during the cooking, provided you keep stirring.) Cook until mixture thickens (you should feel some “resistance” when stirring) and boils for 1 minute. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup of the mixture into the small bowl with egg yolks. Then, slowly pour back the contents of the small bowl into the large one (in other words: egg-milk mixture into milk mixture), stirring quickly to prevent curdling. Add butter and vanilla extract and keep stirring until butter is melt. Place plastic over bowl and refrigerate until cool (at least 1 hour).
3. Preheat oven to 425°F and grease with butter a baking pan. Roll out the refrigerated dough and place it in the pan, gently pressing with your fingers to make it fit. Bake until crisp (about 15 minutes). Let cool, then remove crust from pan.
4. After refrigerating the custard, stir in the coconut flakes. Pour custard in crust and refrigerate for at least another 3-4 hours (or an entire night if you can wait!). The longer you wait, the better it will taste.
5. Just before serving, top pie with whipping cream and toasted coconut flakes.