Truly Coconutty Cream Pie

A year ago, I started an experiment with www.allrecipes.com.  I submitted two of my original dessert recipes to see how long it would take to get them up.  Just today I got a response saying that my recipe for coconut cream pie was accepted, but it was still in the editing process.  Rather than wait another year, here's the Sugar Lovin' truly coconutty cream pie recipe. 

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 Tbsp butter-flavor shortening
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut water
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut rum

Filling

• 18 oz cocounut milk
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 cup coconut, flaked, sweetened, toasted
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 6 oz whole milk
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tbsp butter

Topping:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Flaked, sweetened, toasted coconut

Directions

1. For the crust: Combine first 4 ingredients in food processor and blend until you have pea sized pieces. Place mixture in bowl and slowly add coconut water alternating with coconut rum, 1 Tbsp at a time. Only add enough so that mixture forms a solid ball. Knead about 10 times. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Allow dough to come to room temperature before rolling out.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 in pie pan. Roll out dough on a clean well floured surface until it fits the pie pan. Using a fork, prick holes in the pie crust. Weigh down the pie crust using dry beans or pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Set aside.
3. For the filling: Combine coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar, flaked coconut, vanilla bean seeds and pod in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.
4. Whisk together remaining sugar, cornstarch and milk. Gradually whisk in eggs and egg yolks until fully blended.
5. Slowly add 1/3 cup of hot coconut milk mixture to egg mixture by pouring it down the side of the bowl. Then add the whole egg mixture in with the remaining coconut milk mixture and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it reaches a boil. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean pod and whisk in butter until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust.
6. Chill pie for 1 hour. Meanwhile, place mixer bowl and whisk in freezer for 15 minutes. In chilled bowl, combine heavy cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Begin whipping on high speed and slowly add in confectioners sugar. Beat until stiff peak stage. Pipe onto chilled pie and top with coconut flakes.

Be sure not to skip tempering the eggs with the hot coconut milk mixture before combining the whole egg mixture with the hot coconut milk mixture- otherwise, your eggs will curdle! Freezing the mixing bowl before whipping the cream makes it whip up faster and keeps it more stable. This pie can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated before serving.