Toasted Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie

I wanted to do a completely different Christmas menu this year. I've made roast beef, onion soup and cheesecake for years. This year I wanted to spread my wings a little. I bought one of those spiral cut hams and made an intriguing dessert from a recipe card I received in the mail as part of an offer for Christmas with Southern Living 2006. I was disappointed with another Southern Living cookbook that I had ordered so I threw out everything except the two recipe cards that interested me.

I was going to buy a deep dish pie plate, not solely for this recipe, but also to have on hand for other deep dish recipes. For some reason, I couldn't find one. Not just one I liked. At all. Does no one bake any more? I guess not. So I resorted to a foil pan from the grocery store which made it extremely difficult to maneuver this pie in and out of the oven. The foil pan kept bending. I needed three hands, two for the pie and one to open and close the oven door and slide the rack in and out.

I skipped the purchased pie crust and made my own. I have no idea why they shielded the crust at the end of the baking time. I went with my tried and true method of shielding the crust until the last 15 minutes of baking time. I imagine their way results in a burned or overdone crust. If you try their method, please let me know how it turned out. I'm really curious.

I didn't toast the coconut. I'm not sure if that makes a big difference in taste and/or texture. I was surprised that the morsels went in whole rather than pre-melted. My guess is that 1 1/4 hours in the oven are supposed to be sufficient to melt them. It wasn't. They just softened a little. Nor was it long enough to cook the pie all the way through. The center was still runny when I took it out. It looked good and it tasted good, it just didn't cook right.

Verdict: What were they thinking???

Toasted Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie

(Source: Christmas with Southern Living 2006)

1 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks or morsels

Unroll 1 piecrust, and place on a lightly floured surface; lightly brush top crust with water. Unroll remaining crust, and place over bottom crust; gently roll into a 10" circle. Fit into a 9" deep-dish pieplate; fold edges under, and crimp.

Stir together butter and next 5 ingredients in as large bowl, stir well. Stir in pecans and remaining ingredients. Pour filling into piecrust.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until set, shielding crust after 45 minutes with aluminum foil, if necessary. Cool completely on a wire rack. Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Recycle: corn syrup bottle, vanilla extract bottle

Compost: eggshells