COCONUT CREAM PIE FOR INTERNATIONAL PI(E) DAY

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To mathematicians the Greek letter π (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. This number is so important that it has its own holiday day: Pi Day.

Pi Day is March 14, since π starts with 3.14... and continues, irrationally, ever after. (But don't despair: for your daily use you can get by with just the first six numbers: 3.14159).

Not only mathematicians observe Pi Day, bakers honor it, too. After all, the Greek letter sounds in English like pastry and, with the help of a little "e", it easily turns into pie.

Though never a great ace in math, I'm all for celebrating such a meaningful holiday.

No spring in sight!

Here in Maine we still have one snowstorm ("Nor'easter") chasing the other. Therefore, only a cozy comfort-food-pie would do. (My husband's provocative suggestion, Cherry Pie, faced an instant rebuttal).

But Coconut Cream Pie met with wholehearted enthusiasm from all sides.

The custard filling takes a little effort, but it is soooo worth it! Cook's Illustrated's classic is by far the best Coconut Cream Pie we ever had. Highly satisfying, but not so rich that you feel stuffed for the whole day.

In fact, we had to pull ourselves together not to devour the whole thing!

The animal crackers in the crust don't contain a lot of fat or sugar. Graham crackers are a possible substitute, but don't use richer cookies. I reduced the amount of sugar in the filling by 25% - the pie is sweet enough.

Since we are empty-nesters, I made two small pies (with 2/3 of the recipe amount) in 6-inch/15-cm ø aluminum foil pans. If you take those thin-walled pans, you have to place them on a baking sheet to avoid over-browning.

The best Coconut Cream Pie we ever had!

COCONUT CREAM PIE  (adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

(One 9-inch/23-cm pie or three small (6-inch/15-cm) pies)

Crust
170 g animal crackers (or graham crackers)
12 g/2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
13 g/1 tbsp sugar
57 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling
1 (13 1/2-oz) can/404 g coconut milk
246 g/1 cup whole milk
51 g/½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
75 g sugar, plus
12 g/1 tbsp sugar
⅜ tsp table salt
85 g/5 egg yolks
42 g cornstarch
28 g unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whipped Cream Topping
357 g/1 ½ cups heavy cream (cold)
24 g/2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
6 g/1 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted golden brown

Kekse, Kokosraspel, Butter und Zucker für die Piekruste

Preheat oven to 325ºF/160ºC, adjusting rack to lower middle position.

In food processor, pulse animal crackers, coconut and sugar until finely ground. Transfer to medium bowl, add melted butter and stir well, until all crumbs are evenly moistened.

Stir melted butter into crumbs until no dry spots remain

Transfer crumbs to a 9-inch/23-cm ø Pyrex pie pan (or 3 small 6-inch/15-cm aluminum pans). Using a measuring cup or small ramekin, press crumbs evenly into bottom and up sides.

Press crumbs evenly into bottom and up sides of the pie pan

Place pie pan(s) in the oven (put aluminum pans on a baking sheet!) and bake for about 15 minutes, rotating pie(s) halfway through, until crust is fragrant and medium brown.

Let crust(s) cool on a wire rack (about 30 minutes).

Coconut milk mixture

For the filling, bring coconut milk, whole milk, coconut, 75 g sugar, and salt to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring now and then.

Mix egg yolks with cornstarch and sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks with cornstarch and remaining 1 tbsp sugar until well combined.

Whisking constantly, gradually pour 1 cup hot milk mixture over yolk mixture until blended. Gradually whisk in remaining milk mixture in 3-4 additions until well combined.

Egg yolk/milk mixture

Return egg yolk/milk mixture to sauce pan, and cook, whisking constantly, until it thickens and comes to a boil, about 1 minute. (To determine whether a full boil is reached, stop stirring; you should see large bubbles bursting on the surface.)

Off the heat, whisk in butter and vanilla

Remove pot from heat, and whisk in butter pieces and vanilla until butter is melted and fully incorporated.

Pour filling into crust...

Pour hot filling into cooled pie crust(s), smoothing surface with rubber spatula. Press a pieces of plastic wrap directly against surface (to prevent a skin from forming).

...then cover with plastic foil, pressed directly on surface

 Refrigerate pie(s) until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Spread topping over the pie, then sprinkle it with toasted coconut

Just before serving, whip heavy cream with sugar and vanilla, using handheld mixer, until soft peaks form, 1 1/2 bis 2 minutes. Spread topping over pie filling. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Coconut Cream Pie

TIP: Pie leftovers keeps, covered, for 2-3 days in the fridge. If you bake several small pies, like I did, add topping to each pie just before serving.

LEFTOVER STOLLEN? - STOLLEN TORTE WITH BLUEBERRIES

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Left to his own devices while working on some projects, the best of all husbands didn't want to spend much time on cooking or going into restaurants. But men have to eat, especially if they are tiling and putting up sinks, so he went to the supermarket and grabbed a piece of stollen, a leftover from Christmas (and heavily discounted!) 

Most of it he brought home (who can live of stollen for a sustained time?) and there it was, waiting for eager eaters, where there were only people who, after the holidays, were "stollened-out" for the rest of the year. 

Stollen leftover, ready for recycling

St. Honoré, the patron saint of bakers, must have heard my weary sigh, when I saw this Stollen of Christmas Past.

The very next day I found in my blog list a post by master baker Wolfgang Süpke: the leftovers Stollen Torte!

Having a smaller piece of stollen, I downsized the recipe from 28 cm/11" diameter to 21 cm/9".

Since the store bought stollen was quite sweet, I reduced the sugar a bit, and added some lemon and vanilla.

And, living in Maine, I used (frozen) wild blueberries instead of a preserve (and doubled the amount.) The quark in the filling I substituted with cream cheese.

We liked the torte very much. The sweetness of the stollen bottom was balanced by the berries and slightly lemony cream filling.

Stollen Torte looks nice with a simple blueberry topping, too

STOLLEN TORTE  (adapted from Wolfgang Süpke)
(12 servings)

Cake
560 g/20 oz blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used wild Maine blueberries)
420 g/15 oz stollen, cut in thick slices (1.5 cm/0.6")
130 g/4.5 oz sugar
17 g/0.6 oz gelatin powder
56 g/2 oz cold water
225 g/8 oz whipping or heavy cream, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
225 g/8 oz low fat yogurt, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. lemon juice, or more to taste
2 tsp. lemon zest, or more to taste

Frosting and decoration
1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream
blueberries

Cook blueberries with 20 g of the sugar, until they break down, and the liquid is reduced by about a third (too much juice will leak out of the cake bottom.)

Grease 21-cm cake rim (or ring of a springform pan), then dust with powdered sugar.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Fill ring with stollen slices, filling out holes with smaller pieces.

Fill cake ring with stollen slices

Spoon cooked blueberries evenly over stollen bottom. 

Distribute blueberries over stollen layer

In a small bowl, stir gelatin into the water, and let sit until water is absorbed. Microwave until mixture is dissolved, stirring now and then.

Mix cream cheese filling

Whisk cream until soft peaks form. In second large bowl, mix cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest, until well combined. Stir in whipped cream, mixing well.

Spread filling over blueberries

Temper melted gelatin by adding 3 tablespoons of the cream mixture, one by one, mixing until well combined.(If the gelatin clumps because you didn't work fast enough, briefly nuke it in the microwave again.)

Pour gelatin in cream mixture, stirring until well blended. Pour filling over blueberries, smoothing surface with rubber spatula. Cover, and refrigerate torte overnight.

After removing the ring, the sides have to be frosted

To serve, remove cake ring. Frost sides with whipped cream, then decorate the top. (I made small circles on top and fill them with blueberries.) Or simply sprinkle it with blueberries.

Update 12/30/15: In the meantime, I have made the Stollen Torte with leftover stollen, panettone, and poppy seed stollen - all tasted wonderful!

Stollen Torte with Blueberries

RHUBARB VANILLA CREAM TART

Rhubarb Vanilla Cream Tart - a marriage of tart and sweet, with Bourbon vanilla

I always liked rhubarb. It grew abundantly in our garden, and my sister, my two cousins, and I were admonished not to eat it raw - especially not the leaves - in the same way we were told not to bite into the pods of golden chain, monkshood, lily-of-the-valley or foxglove. OR ELSE!

My mother usually cooked rhubarb for compote, to eat with vanilla pudding or quark, but sometimes we bought rhubarb streusel cake, or rhubarb meringue torte from the Konditorei.

The rhubarb plants in our garden in Bar Harbor were hardly visible when we moved into our house. Suffering from years of living in the shadows, malnourishment and crowded out by weeds, they had shrunk to puny proportions, with spindly stems too anorectic to harvest.

My in-laws planted rhubarb in what was, in those days, a sunny patch along the fence, but long since overshadowed by maples and cedars. I didn't even think they were worth the effort of digging and planting them somewhere else, but, at least, I freed them from their suffocating neighbors, and graciously fed them some compost.

In the meantime, some trees have come down, and more light is now reaching these poor plants. They seem to like my grudging care, and look much more vigorous this year (even growing gamely back after some people - I will not name names - dumped a garbage can right on their patch).

Recovering rhubarbs

Since they are still on the way to recovery, I bought the fat, healthy rhubarb stems for this wonderful cake at Hannaford's.

RHUBARB VANILLA CREAM TART

Crust
110 g/3.9 oz all-purpose flour
30 g/1 oz whole wheat pastry flour (or more all-purpose flour)
80 g/2.8 oz cornstarch
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp baking powder
80 g/2.8 oz powdered sugar, sifted
1 pinch salt
100 g/7 tbsp butter, softened

Rhubarb Compote
400 g/14.1 oz rhubarb, peeled and cut in 2 cm chunks
50 g/1.8 oz sugar
60 ml/ 1/4 cup orange juice (or wine)
4 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water (or orange liqueur)

Vanilla cream
500 ml/16.9 oz heavy cream
80 g/2.8 oz sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
1 envelope unflavored gelatin powder (or 4 white gelatin leaves)
100 g/3.5 oz mascarpone cheese


1. For the crust: using a wooden spoon, mash butter in a bowl, and mix with powdered sugar. Add egg, and mix until completely blended.

2. In second bowl, sift together flour, starch, baking powder and salt. Add to bowl with wet ingredients. Work dough into ball, and then press into a flat disk on plastic wrap. Wrap and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.

3.  For the rhubarb compote: in sauce pan over medium heat, let sugar caramelize until light brown. Add orange juice (or wine), then rhubarb, and cook for 5 minutes, or until rhubarb is soft and sugar dissolved. In small bowl, dissolve starch in 1 tbsp. cold water (or liqueur). Stir into rhubarb, and let cool.

4. Cut parchment paper to a round, using a 10-inch/26 cm tart form as template (use later with pie weights.)

5. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 11-inch/28 cm round. Place into tart form, pushing dough to sides. Trim excess with knife. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400ºF/200ºC. Adjust rack to second lowest position.

7. Cover dough with paper round, then with pie weights (or dried beans.) Bake for 15 minutes, remove pie weights and paper. Continue baking for another 10 minutes. Let tart crust cool (in pan) on wire rack.

8. For the vanilla cream, scrape vanilla bean. Add empty pod and heavy cream to sauce pan and cook until cream is reduced by 1/5th to 14 oz/400 ml. Remove vanilla pod.

9. Mix powdered gelatin with sugar. Stir with vanilla seeds into hot cream, until dissolved (or soak gelatin leaves in cold water for 10 minutes, squeeze, and stir into hot cream until dissolved.)

10. Let cool for 5 minutes, then stir in mascarpone. Leave to cool, until cream begins to set.

11. Spoon rhubarb compote evenly over baked crust. Chill for 30 minutes. Spread vanilla cream evenly over rhubarb. Refrigerate tart for several hours, until cream has set.

I adapted this recipe from essen-und-trinken.de: "Rhabarber-Vanillecreme-Tarte".