GRANDMA DEW'S COCONUT PIE

It's been before the holidays since I have sewed on anything. Unfortunately, for me, that usually means before I can start on anything new, I have to do some "straightening up" first in my sewing room. When I went in there several days ago to start on a new quilt-top shower curtain, I had to do just that. 

When I picked up one bag full of quilting books that I had brought back from my visit back home for Thanksgiving, I saw three recipe cards (index cards with recipes on them actually) that had fallen on the floor. They were cards from some of my mother's collection that I have on the bookcase in the room. One card I had written a long time ago that said "Mom's Lemon Pie" and one was a typed recipe that said Coconut Pie Frances Dew. Frances Dew or Mom was my paternal grandmother. Daddy called her Mom and so then did my mother. She had remarried and since I called my maternal grandmother "Grandma", I called my paternal grandmother "Grandma Dew", her new married name to keep them straight.

I love coconut pie and lemon pie, but I am afraid to make them. The process of "tempering the eggs" always scares me. I'm afraid I'm going to end up with scrabbled eggs. I couldn't believe it when I read both recipes that they weren't made this way.

As soon as I found out that only 6 of us would be getting together to play canasta this week, I knew I would be making the coconut pie for dessert. (I make the dessert when Friend Fran is the hostess.)

This pie was so-o-o-o-o easy! I can't believe I let my crazy fear keep me from making one of these. I don't ever remember eating a coconut pie when we visited with my grandma Dew, but she certainly had a winner of a recipe.

COCONUT PIE

4      tablespoons sugar
5      tablespoons flour
1/2   teaspoon salt
2      cups milk
3      eggs separated
1       cup coconut
2      teaspoons vanilla
1       baked 9 - inch pie shell

Bake a pie crust in a 9 - inch pie plate according to package directions. Cool completely. (I forgot to take a picture of the baked pie crust.)

Combine sugar, flour, and salt. Add milk and beaten egg yolks mixing thoroughly making sure all lumps are gone. 

Using a double boiler with boiling water in bottom pan,

cook mixture in top pan for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Mixture will thicken as it cooks.

Remove the top pan from the stove 

and add the coconut and vanilla.

Cool 

and pour into pie shell.








Prepare Meringue

MERINGUE

3      egg whites
6      tablespoons sugar
1/2   teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Beat the egg whites until stiff gradually adding sugar. Add cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks form.

Gently spread over pie.

Sprinkle additional coconut on top. (My grandma's recipe didn't say to do this, but I like it that way.)

Bake in oven for 10 minutes or til meringue and coconut are lightly browned.