Lemon and Coconut Not-Cream Pie
When I was little, my parents got me the Random House book of Short Stories (which must be out of print because I can't find it anywhere - you'll have to trust me that it's a thing). I loved that book so much, loved all the stories in it, even the one about the green knight who got his head cut off for being a knave. There was one (no knights or beheadings involved) in which a dad and his sons made a lemon pudding, if memory serves, for the boys' mother. It was a funny story - the boys got into trouble for eating too much of the pie, so the dad gave them a beating (beat the eggs) and a whipping (whip the cream) to teach them a lesson - and in the end, Mom gets the pie and says that it tastes like a thousand lemons in the rafters, like the full moon in the sky (something to that effect, anyway).
This is not that pie.
It is, however, what that pie wanted to be when it grew up. I found the original recipe somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning, became obsessed, and decided to make it, even though I had a perfectly good mint chocolate pie in the 'fridge. When one is learning to cook with tofu, one quickly learns that there can never be too many tofu-centric desserts in the 'fridge. This version is bigger, better, and possibly less healthy, but no one is keeping score because COME ON, it's pie.
Yummy, yummy pie.
Ingredients
~6 graham cracker sheets (1 sheet = 2 squares)
1/4 cup sweetened coconut (you will need 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp more later)
4 tbsp butter, melted
14-20 oz silken tofu, drained
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat 'cause I'm cool)
1/4 cup sweetened coconut
2 tbsp sweetened coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a food processor, crush the nonsense out of your graham crackers and 1/4 cup coconut.
- Pour into a 9" pie dish.
- Melt 4 tbsp butter and pour over the graham cracker/coconut mixture.
- Mix by hand until the crumbs are evenly buttered, then press into the pan. Set aside.
- Don't you dare even think about cleaning out the food processor.
- Instead, dump in all ingredients from the tofu to the second 1/4 cup coconut into the food processor.
- Blend 'til it's smooth.
- Pour it into the prepared crust.
- Top with the remaining 2 tbsp coconut.
- Bake ~45 minutes, or until the middle seems set (for me, this was when the middle no longer looked wet, but it's really just a guessing-game).
- Here's the hard part: Allow it to cool on a cooling rack at least 2 hours, then refrigerate until completely cool. I know, torture. But worth it, honest!
This is not that pie.
It is, however, what that pie wanted to be when it grew up. I found the original recipe somewhere between two and three o'clock in the morning, became obsessed, and decided to make it, even though I had a perfectly good mint chocolate pie in the 'fridge. When one is learning to cook with tofu, one quickly learns that there can never be too many tofu-centric desserts in the 'fridge. This version is bigger, better, and possibly less healthy, but no one is keeping score because COME ON, it's pie.
Yummy, yummy pie.
Lemon and Coconut Not-Cream Pie
Ingredients
~6 graham cracker sheets (1 sheet = 2 squares)
1/4 cup sweetened coconut (you will need 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp more later)
4 tbsp butter, melted
14-20 oz silken tofu, drained
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat 'cause I'm cool)
1/4 cup sweetened coconut
2 tbsp sweetened coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a food processor, crush the nonsense out of your graham crackers and 1/4 cup coconut.
- Pour into a 9" pie dish.
- Melt 4 tbsp butter and pour over the graham cracker/coconut mixture.
- Mix by hand until the crumbs are evenly buttered, then press into the pan. Set aside.
- Don't you dare even think about cleaning out the food processor.
- Instead, dump in all ingredients from the tofu to the second 1/4 cup coconut into the food processor.
- Blend 'til it's smooth.
- Pour it into the prepared crust.
- Top with the remaining 2 tbsp coconut.
- Bake ~45 minutes, or until the middle seems set (for me, this was when the middle no longer looked wet, but it's really just a guessing-game).
- Here's the hard part: Allow it to cool on a cooling rack at least 2 hours, then refrigerate until completely cool. I know, torture. But worth it, honest!
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