Who / What Am I? 23-08

And we have a winner!

The Lonely Dogs got it right! Mystery picture was in fact a coconut, very young one but nevertheless a coconut! Well done!

I am so happy someone guessed it. Otherwise I would have to show you the 3^rd picture of it… which was of the inside of the coconut and I believe it would only have made things worse for you all…

For none believers here is the full shot of our mysterious nut 🙂

This week we will stay with the topic of white. I hope this one will be a little easier…

Drum roll… and here it is… Who / What Am I?

Have a great weekend!

What’s Cooking – Coconut Cream Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Coconut Cream Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Looking in the cupboard Mark came out with some fresh ginger and a fresh coconut muttering he needed to use these. Now I am convinced that Mark is having a secret crush on a new lady called Anna Olson, a Canadian master baker who has a show on the food network channel, he never seems to be busy when she is on. On the plus side though after looking through his notes on her he did come up with this rather scrummy cake…

Ingredients:

Gingersnap Crust

• 3/4 cup + 1/3 cup unsalted butter or vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 1 cup golden brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup fancy molasses
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• sugar, for coating

Coconut Filling

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups coconut milk
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted

Cream Topping

• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon skim milk powder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted

Method:

1. For gingersnaps, preheat oven to 180°C. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Stir in fancy molasses and beat in egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to butter mixture and stir just until blended. Shape spoonfuls of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and press flat with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and remove from baking sheet to cool.

These are the cookies Mark “destroyed” in order to make a crust for the cake
/such a shame

2. For crust, grind cooled cookies finely and measure out 2 ¼ cups of crumbs. Melt remaining 1/3 cup butter and stir into crumbs. Press into a 9-inch pie pan (or 2 6-inch springform pans) and chill until ready to fill.

3. For filling, stir sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in coconut milk, whole eggs and egg yolks. Heat custard on low heat, whisking constantly for 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and continue whisking until custard thickens and becomes glossy, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Stir in vanilla, butter and coconut and stir until butter has melted. Pour immediately into chilled pie shell, let cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then chill completely before topping with cream, at least 4 hours.

4. For cream topping, whip cream to a medium peak, and whisk in sugar and skim milk powder (the skim milk powder stabilizes the cream). Top coconut custard with whipped cream, and sprinkle remaining toasted coconut on top as garnish.

Mercilessly copy and pasted from the wonderful Anna Olson.