Scott and I went on a much needed vacation to Roatan, Honduras. (There is a pattern here — we tend to need vacations.) We stay in a lovely small hotel in a room with a kitchenette and a balcony in the  town of West End. Wmake delish Honduran coffee every morning and sit on the balcony among the palm trees drinking coffee, reading, and eating tropical fruit. (I try to buy tropical fruit in NYC every year when I come back from a tropical vacation and I am always disappointed.)

On one of our last nights, we made it to a restaurant at the other end of West End.  We had tried to go earlier in the week, but the first time we went, Creole’s Rotisserie chicken had a line out the door.  Someone advised us to come earlier.  We ended up eating Honduran quesadillas and beer on the beach from local street vendors. Not a bad option. The next night we managed to get to the chicken restaurant. The chicken was good, the coconut rice and beans inspiring, and the coconut cream pie heavenly.

Hopefully, my attempts at coconut cream pie will be more successful than tropical fruit for breakfast.

The chef makes her graham cracker crust with “marias.”  I promptly stopped at the convenience mart in Honduras to pick up a couple packets (and then found them when I got home at Fairway.)

This is presented as a totally no-bake pie. All cooking is stove top.

Crust:

1 ½ cups of Maria biscuits, crushed in the food processor

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

¼ cup brown sugar (I stirred it into the butter to make sure it dispersed. Next time I will mix it into the biscuits while they are in the food processor. i will update the results in several months when I try it again.)

¼ tsp salt (ditto into the butter)

Stirred together and pressed into a 9″ pie pan

Chilled.

Filling:

• 1½ cups coconut milk
• 1½ cups half-and-half
• 5 egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups flaked, unsweetened coconut
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla

1. Pour coconut milk and half-and-half into a liquid measuring cup. Add egg yolks and whisk together with milks. Set aside.
2. Add sugar and cornstarch to a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk egg and milk mixture together once more and then slowly begin to add to the sugar and cornstarch, whisking together constantly.
3. Bring custard mixture to a boil. Switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and continue to stir constantly. Boil one minute.
4. Remove from heat and add butter, coconut, vanilla and salt.
5. Spread custard into pie crust. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until set, about 30-45 minutes.

Top with whipped cream and toasted, sweetened coconut flakes

Toasted coconut:

Place desired amount of coconut flakes in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the flakes are mostly golden brown. If the coconut is sweetened it tends to brown faster so, it will take less time. If you have unsweetened coconut and you want to sweeten it, you can put the shaved coconut into a bag and toss it with a few tablespoons of sugar (to taste.)

The chef in Roatan said that this was not her best pie.  Her mother had fresh coconuts at her house, but she couldn’t get anyone to climb the tree to pick them. Next week, she said, it would be better because all the coconut would be fresh and not from a packet.  Just sayin’.