Today, I sent this text to my husband at work:

“Holy Mother of Pies, Batman! I want to stick my whole FACE in this coconut cream pie!”

While I was texting, I was whipping up meringue with the other hand–you can’t turn off the beaters until it’s done. In between words, I was dipping my spoon–ravenously, I might add–into this pot of leftover filling. It was on my chin, and I didn’t care.

At this point, I knew that I had to let someone know that I’d made the pie. Otherwise, I would sit alone with a big spoon and eat it all until it was gone. I’m serious, I made LOUD yummy noises and said who knows what else to proclaim the deliciousness of that coconut custard filling. You should be jealous as you’re reading this, ’cause I can’t remember when I’ve tasted anything so good. Not kidding. Today was a banner day for Coconut Meringue Pie.

The crust was homemade, and I learned that I need to practice more on pre-baking crusts. You have to do that for chilled pies. I used my pie beans to pre-bake the crust, but the edges got all wonky when I put the foil in there. My sister, Kim, reminded me–that’s why you’re supposed to put the crust in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes before you fill it–so that it’s less likely to be bendy. Also, that gets the butter cold all over again, which makes the crust flakier. Lesson learned. 
Anyhoo, I decided to make a meringue topping instead of doing the whole heavy whipping cream thing. I didn’t have any whipping cream–heavy or otherwise–and I like the fact that meringue can be done in advance–homemade whipped cream has to be done right before you serve the pie. I had egg whites leftover anyway, because the filling called for 3 egg yolks. According to the recipe beside the one I was following (in my Pie cookbook), you can put coconut in the meringue, so I tried it. My meringue wasn’t as tall as I’d hoped, and I think it’s because I was hurrying to get all the ingredients in the bowl. You really are supposed to put one tablespoon of sugar at a time in those egg whites or else they get weighed down. And nobody wants to get weighed down.