Coconut Custard Pie

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Fit the crust into a 9-inch pie dish and crimp the edges.
2. Line the crust with parchment and pie weights (or dried beans) and blind-bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment and bake 5 more minutes until just set but pale. Reduce oven to 350°F (177°C).
3. Whisk the filling ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth.
4. Pour the filling into the crust.
5. Bake for 40–45 minutes, until the edges are set and the center jiggles only slightly when the pan is nudged.
6. Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate at least 2 hours before slicing.

The Tale of Coconut Custard Pie

Story updated September 18, 2026

Coconut custard pie merges two separate histories: Europe's centuries-old custard pie tradition and coconut's comparatively recent arrival in American kitchens. Custard pies had been baked in England since the Middle Ages, but coconut, though occasionally used in early American desserts, remained a rare, hard-to-process ingredient well into the 1800s. That changed around 1894, when a Philadelphia flour miller named Franklin Baker received a boatload of fresh coconuts as debt payment from a Cuban client. Baker built a business shredding and drying the meat, making coconut shelf-stable, affordable, and suddenly practical for home bakers for the first time. An early published recipe for the pie appeared in Charles Ranhofer's 1893 cookbook The Epicurean, and coconut custard pie caught on quickly in American kitchens through the early twentieth century, folding shredded coconut into the familiar egg-and-milk custard base cooks already knew well.