Coconut Freezer Pie

Holy hotness! 90 degree days are simply not conducive to baking. My little window AC unit is no match for my brand-spankin-new oven. And since I’d prefer not to sweat into my cookie batter (sorry for the mental picture), I’ve been really, really bad about posting to my blog.

Lucky for me I came upon a recipe for a freezer pie during my daily review of some of my favorite blogs. The original posting mentioned turning on the oven (gasp!) to toast the coconut, but it’s not imperative to the recipe. So I refuse. I opted for a store-bought graham cracker crust and coconut straight out of the bag. Then I substituted the milk and almond extract for coconut milk (see * below).

Ingredients

4 ounces (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk*
1 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1 tub (8 ounce) Cool Whip, thawed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 store-bought graham cracker pie crust

*1/2 cup milk plus ½ teaspoon of almond extract can be substituted for the coconut milk.

In a mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat together the softened cream cheese and sugar. Pour in the coconut milk and vanilla extract and continue beating until well combined.

Using a large spoon, fold in the thawed Cool Whip and 1 and ¼ cups of the coconut flakes. Once all these ingredients are well mixed, pour the creamy batter into the prepared graham cracker crust. Sprinkle the pie with the remaining ¼ cup of coconut flakes and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours. Be sure to allow the pie to soften a bit before slicing a serving.