Lawry's Coconut Banana Cream Pie

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is putting our pinterest to good use and choosing delicious pie recipes that make us drool as we browse the endless sea of "so good!", "the best!", and "delicious!" that pinterest has to offer.  This is one of the (4) pies that we made this year!  It was my favorite for sure, and the favorite of many of our family members too.  The direct quote (that I kept because I'm too lazy to change what other people write when they pin it) from when I pinned it is: "Heads up coconut lovers, this pie is amazing, totally decadent, and the coconut crust is absolutely awesome. The crust takes it from ordinary to sublime."  Okay, if a recipe has amazing, decadent, and absolutely awesome in its description, it's got to be good.  No one would be that liberal with their choice of words unless it was true...

Well, luckily for me it was true.  How embarrassing to make a pie at Thanksgiving that is only "really good".

This pie was pretty awesome.  Absolutely awesome, if you will.  The coconut crust almost made a cookie or macaroon-ish crust that was so yummy.  The homemade vanilla pudding was great too.  If I ever want to make this pie in a crunch (most of the time comes from letting things chill before putting it together), I will just do a boxed vanilla pudding, although it wouldn't taste quite as yummy. 

So, thanks to Jan Can Cook, who took the time to scout out this recipe from L.A. Food Times, we can all enjoy "absolutely wicked awesome decadence" in the form of this pie. (You can quote me on that.)

Lawry's Coconut Banana Cream Pie 
adapted from Jan Can Cook

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours chilling 

Coconut Pie Shell 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, plus more for pie plate 
3 cups sweetened flake coconut 

Lightly butter a 9-inch pie plate and set aside. 

Melt the 1/2 cup butter in a large skillet over medium heat and brown the coconut flakes, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. They should be golden brown. Press the coconut firmly and evenly in the pan to form a shell. Chill the crust 30 minutes before filling. 

Pie Filling 

4 egg yolks 
3/4 cup sugar, divided 
3 tablespoons cornstarch 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/4 cup flour 
3 cups half-and-half, divided 
Yellow food coloring 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
2 bananas 
1 cup whipping cream 
1 tablespoon powdered sugar 

Combine the cornstarch and flour.  Pour a little at a time into a tightly sealed container with 1 cup of the half-and-half.  Shake vigorously until there are no lumps.  Continue to add the remaining flour/cornstarch mixture until no lumps remain.  Combine the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Gradually add the half-and-half mixture and whisk.

Combine the remaining 2 cups half-and-half and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a 3-quart saucepan and bring just to boil over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook and stir until the mixture returns to a boil and thickens, about 1 minute. 

Remove from the heat. Stir in 2 drops of food coloring and the vanilla. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool. 

Slice the bananas into the pie shell. Pour the filling into the shell. 

Whip the cream with the powdered sugar until stiff. Spoon in dollops or pipe with a pastry bag around the edge of the pie. Chill 2 hours before slicing. 

*Notes from my experience: 

It seemed like the coconut was going to be way too much to fit in the pie pan as a crust.  I got wax paper and pressed firmly until it resembled a crust.  This worked but it was a little hard to cut into afterwards.  Some readers from this website, Jan Can Cook, said the same thing, but others didn't have a problem with that.

Also, I changed the directions slightly to make the pudding recipe.  It said to mix the egg yolk with the dry ingredients, two of them being cornstarch and flour, which I did, then to mix them into the cup of half-and-half.  It wouldn't mix in with the liquid at that point.  It just made egg yolk clumps at the bottom of my bowl.  I had to scratch that and start over.  It worked well to mix it first with the cornstarch and flour, and then add the other ingredients.