Coconut Caramel Pie

This Pie has 2 versions....Both of which we will be voting on.  Since the recipe makes 2 pies and half of my family likes coconut while the other won't touch it I did 2 slightly different versions.

1 PIE has Coconut

1 PIE has None

Recipe is exactly the same (as it is for 2 pies) until the very end.

Crust
1 1/2 Cups Flour ( I used All-Purpose)
1 Stick Butter (melted)
1 Cup Finely Chopped Pecans ( I put them in my Cuisinart Chopper and Ground them to very small pieces)

Mix and Press into 2 pie pans
Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees

Filling
1 can eagle brand milk
8 oz Cream Cheese
16 oz Cool Whip

Mix together and pour into crust - half in each pie pan

Topping

7 oz coconut (I used about half of this since I only put it on 1 pie)
1 cup chopped nuts (again I ground them up in the Cuisinart)
1/2 stick melted butter

The first pie got the coconut, nuts, butter mixture
Pie # 2 got nuts and butter

So mix the ingredients together as you wish.  Make sure if you are making 2 different pies like I did not to cross contaminate mixing bowls or spoons.

After mixing, put on a cookie sheet and toast at 350 degrees.  Very important to stir often while toasting.  The coconut will burn quickly with all that butter.  You basically toast until it turns a lovely brown color...not burnt looking

Spread over the pies.

Take a 12 oz jar of caramel sauce and pour over the top (half a jar on each pie) 

Freeze for a bit before serving.

Results are as follows:

Everyone LOVES the pie.  It is definately a keeper recipe.  It taste just like Pecan Pie.  So Yummy.  Most people can't talk about how good it is because they are shoving in the next bite before they have swallowed the first.

Try it and let me know how your friends and family react. 

This is the pie with coconut.  It turned out much prettier than the pie without coconut.  The coconut, nuts, and butter make up a thicker topping and don't soak through the cool whip mixture.

This is the pie without the coconut.  It pie taste great, but the nuts soak into the cool whip and make it look a little crazy. 

Cooking with a Cause

I have always had a love of recipes and recipe books. If I see a recipe book I almost always have to have it.  I get it from my mother.  Then I married a chef and expanded my love of food and recipes even more.  Am I a chef?  NO, not by any means.  Just your average mother and housewife making dinner for the family.  But I do love to experiment in the kitchen.  My great love is baking but all recipes hold an interest for me.  I even find myself wanting to make things I don't like because they sound interesting.  So I use my family and co-workers as guinea pigs for my recipes.  Some turn out...some don't.  That is the point of this blog.  You will travel with me through my Kitchen Kraze Experiements. 

Here is how it works.  I find a recipe I want to try - I make it - My family rates it - And I tell you about it.  The rating system is extremely simple.

We don't like it...recipe goes in the trash never to be seen again.

It's OK...We may keep it and change it next time or we just throw it out.

We LOVE it....It goes in the family cookbook (my cookbook which is pretty much a binder with recipe slots) 

The idea is to build a book of recipes we LOVE as a family and pass it down one day to my daughter.

You may wonder where I get all these recipes.  As I mentioned before I have tons of recipe books but I also get recipe emails which I read and print interesting recipes from.  I then take the printed recipes and file them in catagorized folders.  When I need a casserole, or a dessert, or a side dish I just start searching through my folders and presto...I almost always have a recipe to try.  I have hundreds of recipes and there is no way I will ever make all of them in my lifetime.  Well, maybe if I stopped collecting recipes today but the fact is, I will continue to collect recipes forever.  So I will just have to do the best I can. 

I won't be adding a new recipe everyday because I don't cook everyday.  However, I may add some I have tried in the past as I go. 

So Enjoy my Kitchen Kraze and leave your comments.  I'd love to know if you try a recipe, love it, hate it, change it, etc.