Fruit of the Spirit: Coconut Citrus Meringue Pie

Remember a few days ago when I vaguely promised that there would be more pie before the month of July was up? Yeahhhhh...here's me delivering on that promise.
It was a toss up regarding flavors. It's summer, so something heavy and rich wasn't my favorite choice. Wasn't in the mood for chocolate, but I had made a few fruit pies already this month.
I was really going for strawberry pie, just because I hadn't eaten it in about six years or something, which is an absurd amount of time to go without strawberry pie.
But I had just made mint syrup that I wanted to use so I added Grasshopper Pie to the options. Whoohoo, it was getting better by the minute.
And then I knew that I had two cans of coconut milk in the pantry that had been sitting there forever...and who could say no to creamy coconut?

A Poll was organized, family members and twitter followers were surveyed anddddd. Coconut won out in the end. Go coconut! (It is an astounding nut, I have to say.)
But even in its astounding state, I didn't want to make plain old super delicious coconut cream pie. Depth and dynamic was needed. *hunt around the kitchen ensues* I considered putting the strawberries in, but that might not be the best flavor combo. Raspberries? Better...tart and sweet would be nice.

But then when lemons and limes were found in the bottom of the veggie drawer, I was sold. (I'm always sold when it comes to lemon lime. Citrus is kind like my spirit animal, except it isn't an animal, it's a fruit. So it's my spirit fruit? Fruit of the Spirit? Citrus is love and joy and peace. YES! Wait, no...confused.)
So, zesting and juicing and boiling, whipping, and folding. Hours later I sneak down to the kitchen to eat my appropriately chilled citrus coconut meringue pie and this happened.

I smiled. Someone had taken a slice already. It's good news when your family eats pie in the middle of the night.
So yes, you can practice your fruit of the spirit (mainly self control) while waiting for your pie to chill properly. Or you can just get straight down to "goodness" and slice into it early. No harm done. :D

Coconut Citrus Meringue Pie
Ingredients:
1 pie crust, blind baked
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Juice and zest from one lemon and one lime
For Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
6 Tablespoon sugar

Instructions:
Pour coconut milk, half-and-half, and lemon and lime juices into a large bowl with the egg yolks. Whisk together until smooth. Add sugar and cornstarch to a saucepan over medium heat. Slowly pour the milk and egg mixture into the pot, whisking as you go. Bring this custard mixture to a boil while whisking. Switch to a wooden spoon and boil one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, coconut, and lemon and lime zest. Spread the custard into pie crust. 

For Meringue:
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed in a stand mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar one tablespoon at a time on high until stiff glossy peaks form and the sugar is dissolved. Spread over the pie filling, sealing the edges to the crust. Sprinkle the top with flaked coconut and a teaspoon of citrus zest. 
Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until the meringue is golden. Cool on a wire rack for one hour, and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. 

Pee-Aie-Eee: Whats that spell? Pie! (Or awesome...)

This has been a month of pies.
So many tasty pastries with crusts and fruits have been happening.
Let us take an instagram adventure in the world of PIE.

First pie that happened was a really ugly lemon blueberry concoction that happened in the evening after a long day of work. Boy was it hideous. And absolutely delicious! I probably ate 3/4 of it on my own...within a two-ish day time period? Yeah....once I figure out how to make this pretty and tasty there will be an awfully exciting pie recipe up here.

Blueberry Lemon Ugly Pie = Blueberry Lemon TASTEE.

 

 

Thennn...Thursday happened! Thursdays are Farmer's Market days. It's unavoidable. There is all this delicious produce sitting in the sun and there are happy kids drawing with chalk and dogs on leashes straining at all the lovely smells coming from the stalls, someone is playing guitar and singing folksy acoustic songs. One thing leads to another and Candice finds herself buying way too much fruit and making a rustic pie tart thing that tastes phenomenal.

Peppers and Pie Ingredients! Peaches, two kinds of cherries, and blueberries. 

But now this is when it gets crazy fun. Hold on to your hats, kids, because our instagram adventure of pie is leaving the Purple Door Kitchen and heading to New Jersey! Enter Pie Master 2.0. Now, sometimes a girl just plain lucks out and finds out that her staggering good looking, incredibly smart, hilariously funny, and perfectly sweet boyfriend also likes to bake pies. (I know, RIGHT?) Tada! Pumpkin Pie was made in Jersey and Candice thanked Jesus for pie making men. ;)

A few days after the ridiculously successful pumpkin pie was eaten, David called me while he was in the grocery store hunting for apple pie ingredients. (Oh, look the Candice-O-Happy Meter went off the charts...) and a couple of hours later pie flavored skype date! Gosh darn it, we're cute.

And David was thoughtful enough to document our pie adventure, of course. (look! There I am being really happy to watch David make pie for three hours or so) He's always thinking of genius things like that. :) The only bad thing about this arrangement is that I couldn't actually taste the amazing apple pie he made, but watching him bake/eat it made up for it.

Good news about July being the month of pie? Tomorrow I am completely free all afternoon and I think I'm going to make more! Flavors up for debate.

Hand me that Pie!

Everyone reading this post needs to buckle up and put on a helmet. And maybe a mouth guard. Actually, scratch that, you'll need your mouth for this. 

Because these are officially the best hand pies I've ever made. WHuuuutttt?

 I know. 

I can't decide if it's the filling. Or the crust. Or the little glaze on top. It's probably all of them. When I started out making these pies I was in a bad mood. It had been a long rainy day, I had an extra long work schedule the next day, it was late and I really just wanted to go to bed. 

But I really wanted to get these pies baked so I could deliver them to a coffee shop. I was hoping they would order some of my things to have available at their stand. You know, extra baking=extra moolah. Maybe I could quit my day job! Well, I wasn't so lucky. 

Here they are being cute and un-baked...

They didn't really need any extra baked goods. But it is all perfectly okay! Because I created the perfect pie. Who cares if they won't buy em!? Not me, I can keep them to eat for meeeee. Because I seriously had the hardest time not eating all of them. 

All. Of. Them. 

Happy crust...

Earlier in my baking adventures. (And by "earlier" I mean about three years ago) I hated pie crust. It was so hard to make. It fell apart and flopped everywhere. It stuck to the rolling pin, or was too crumbly. It made me pretty short tempered, which is pretty weird because I get short tempered about very little. (Losing one's patience is just so exhausting. I don't have time for it.)

And then something amazing happened. I made a nice pie crust. 

After that, it was a breeze. I guess I had to come into my own...master the pie ninja skills or something. 

At this point, I was ready to devour all of these. It was an inhuman feat leaving them uneaten.

I had fun taking pictures of these. So I took a lot of them. Sorry. My sister sent me a text saying my food photography was getting better and I was so proud of myself I might have gotten carried away. 

Best-Ever Hand Pies

2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp salt

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2/3 cup shortening

5 to 7 Tablespoons of cold water

Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and sugar in a wide metal bowl. The wider the bowl, the better  it is to sprinkle the water over the pastry later on in the recipe. The water will reach more of the flour, making it more flaky and awesome. Cut in the shortening with a pasty cutter or fork until the the pieces are the size of tiny peas. Sprinkle the cold water over the mixture one tablespoon at a time, mixing with a fork in between additions. Form the dough into a ball and flatten in a lightly floured surface. I like to roll it out on a mixing board myself, to avoid messy floury counters later. Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Using a small dessert plate as a template, cut large circles of the dough. Fill each circle with 2-3 tablespoons of filling. Fold over the circles and press the crusts closed by running a wet finger along the edges and sealing with a fork. Poke some air vents in the hand pies. Mix 1 egg with about 1/2 cup of water and brush on the crusts. This will keep them golden. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake the pies at 375 on slightly greased baking sheets until they are golden brown. About 20 minutes. Let them cool and then drizzle with melted white chocolate.  

Favorite "Orchard" Pie Filling

This is our all time favorite pie filling. We make double batches of it to serve on pancakes, over ice cream, to randomly make cobblers. It's amazing. This is a double recipe. Feel free to be a miser and only make half, promptly depriving yourself and your family from having the most stupendous pancakes, ice cream, and cobblers. ;)

4 cups of mixed berries and grapes (this recipe was 2 cups of red grapes, 1 cup blueberries, and 1 cup blackberries. We've used raspberries as well.)

1 cup sugar

A pinch of ginger

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

Zest and juice of one lemon

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tablespoons of butter

2 Tablespoons of juice from berries, or bottled grape juice

Boil Berries, juice, zest, spices, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add the cornstarch and butter, cooking until thick and bubbly. About 15 minutes. Let cool slightly before spooning in the crust.