MAKE: Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie

 I love to cook, but I don't so much consider myself a baker. One of the things I find fun about cooking is adding your own this or that special touch to a meal. Baking is so precise and scientific, and I was never good at that sort of thing. I tend to put things in the oven and sort of back away slowly thinking 'okay, you do your magic. please'. So I made this pie a few weeks ago...and well, there isn't a whole lot of baking in it, so maybe that was on my side, but it was great! I will be making it again and again, and I think you should to! I did end up tweaking it a little since my pie dish was bigger than what the recipe called for. If you are a fan of chocolate and coconut and you like your crust to taste like gooey macaroons, then this pie will be your jam. Oh and the best part? It's really easy! We all like that. Okay on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

6 tbsp. butter

8 cups of shredded coconut (I used sweetened)

1 1/4 Cups of heavy cream

8 oz. of bittersweet chocolate (around 60% cacao), 

either in chips or finely chopped

1 pint of whipping cream

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup of sugar

1/3 cup Nutella (optional)

toasted coconut (optional)

MAKE:

For the Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, process butter, and 1/3 of coconut until mixture forms a ball

transfer to a medium bowl, sprinkle remaining 2/3 of coconut over mixture and combine with your fingers

Place an 11 in pie plate on top of a parchment lined cookie sheet

Press coconut mixture onto bottom and up the sides of the pan leaving the top edges loose and fluffy

Bake 10-15 min, or until edges are brown.

Remove from over and let cool completely

The Insides:

Bring heavy cream just to a boil in a saucepan.

Pour over chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl

Let sit 10 min.

Stir the mixture until chocolate is fully melted and mixture is combined

Pour into cooled coconut crust.

Refrigerate until filling is set. About 1 hr.

Whipped Cream and Topping

Whip the whipping cream with an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks

add vanilla extract , sugar. and Nutella (optional) and whip until combined

Using a spatula, spread the cream over the cooled chocolate pie mixture.

Sprinkle with toasted coconut*!

done :)

* to make the toasted coconut simply grease a fry pan with a little butter, add some coconut, and toast until the desired brown coloring is reached. 

recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's New Pies and Tarts