Thanksgiving recap: So much food!

So full!

This Thanksgiving it was just the 5 of us (like last year) and we had a 17 pound Turducken that took us over a week to eat, a few side dishes that everyone likes, and 3 pies.  Well, it was only supposed to be one pie but a friend brought us a Hibiscus / Jamaica pie that was delicious.  Pie for breakfast, pie for lunch and a little turducken thrown in . . . you get the idea.

The worst part is that I didn't take any photos of the pies!  Little and Middle like pumpkin pie and they were in charge of the pumpkin cheesecake pie and Big does not.  My husband wanted a pie with ingredients from Hawaii so we settled on a Kona coffee, cocoa & coconut custard in a macadamia nut shell.  Big really likes chocolate but this was too much coffee and not sweet enough for her taste.  I didn't realize it when I was coming up with the recipe that this is really low sugar and might even work for my friends who are keto / low carb.  I thought it was delicious!

Pie #1:  Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie in a Graham Cracker Crust

A graham cracker crust (we bought one)

2 (8oz) blocks of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon, pinch nutmeg, pinch cloves)

1/2 cup frozen whipped topping

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well in between.  Place 1 cup of this mixture in the bottom of the graham cracker crust and set aside.  To the remaining mixture, add the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and mix until well combined.  Carefully spread this on top of the cream cheese mixture.  Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes or until the middle is almost set.  Let it cool at room temperature before refrigerating.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours (or overnight) and before serving, spread with whipped topping.

Pie #2:  Kona Coffee Cocoa Coconut Custard in a Macadamia nut crust

*The amount of custard will fill two pie crusts.  We only made one pie and ate the rest of the custard on it's own with a little whipped cream.

9 full sheet graham crackers

1/4 cup roasted macadamia nuts

1/4 cup toasted coconut

1 T sugar

5 T unsalted butter, melted

2 cans coconut milk (not "light")

1 cup coffee or espresso 

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 oz alcohol or liquer (optional - we used 1oz dark rum but you could also use Baileys or flavored bitters or add another flavoring or just skip it)

8 egg yolks

200g dark chocolate, finely chopped

Whipped cream, for serving

Start by making the crust.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Crush the graham crackers and finely chop the macadamia nuts.  Putting them in a food processor or mini chopper would work well (we did it the old fashioned way with a mallet).  Stir in the toasted coconut, melted butter and sugar and stir to combine.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a pie pan and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it cool.

For the custard, combine coconut milk, coffee, vanilla and salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  We added the rum here so that the alcohol would burn off but if you want a more "spiked" version, you could add it later when the custard is off the heat.  

In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks together.  Remove the coconut mixture from the heat and temper the egg yolks (constantly whisk them while adding 1 T of coconut mixture at a time, until you've incorporated about 1/2 cup without scrambling the yolks).  Once the yolks are tempered, slowly pour them into the coconut mixture, constantly whisking.  Return to medium heat and while stirring, allow the custard to thicken until it coats the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until completely melted.

Pour custard into pie crust and cool to room temperature then refrigerate for at least 4 hours to allow the custard to set.  Serve with whipped cream.