Baby Chocolate Coconut Cream Pies

Lately I seem to be all into the little individual servings of things. Macaroni and cheese cupcakes. French toast muffins. Banana bites. So when I spied this recipe for little individual chocolate coconut cream pies on the always fabulous Baking Bites website it made my heart go pitter-pat. Yes, a chocolate coconut cream pie where you can have the entire thing YOURSELF and not feel the slightest bit guilty.

Now, I am very sure that there is some recipe out there in the world somewhere that calls for making your own homemade graham cracker individual perfect crusts, but this is one of those cases where I invoked the chicken fried steak rule (and for you newer readers who have NO idea what I am talking about, click HERE). Anyway, this particular recipe called for using individual pre-made graham cracker crusts, and I thought there was no way on earth my supermarket was going to have them. But lo and behold! there they were right there in the baking aisle.

Now, one word about these little crusts. They come in foil pans, which was rubbing me the wrong way in terms of the whole look of my little pies. I tried taking one out of the foil pan before I started and it broke into a million delicious, unusable pieces. BUT...after the crusts were filled and chilled down in the fridge, they popped out very easily -- I pushed up just a little on the bottom to ease it out. And then I felt like all was right with the world.

So the next time you are hankering for something a little bit chocolate and a little bit coconut, these are for you!

Baby Chocolate Coconut Cream Pies, from Baking Bites

• 5-oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and divided
• 12 miniature graham cracker pie crusts
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups half & half/light cream
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (regular or light)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped sweetened flaked coconut
• lightly sweetened whipped cream

1. Brush individual graham cracker crusts with melted chocolate, using about 1.5-oz. Place in the refrigerator to harden.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Whisk in eggs, half & half and coconut milk until very smooth. Strain mixture into a medium saucepan.

3. Heat mixture over medium heat, whisking frequently, until custard begins to come to a simmer. Add in remaining 3.5-oz bittersweet chocolate and stir until chocolate is fully incorporated and mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and stir in finely chopped coconut and vanilla extract.

4. Pour into chocolate-lined pie shells and refrigerate until chilled – about 3 hours, or overnight.

5. Top with sweetened whipped cream and garnish with a little more coconut.

Click here for printable recipe