Grandma Renshaw's Coconut Cream Pie

This week I baked a recipe from my Grandma, Margaret Ackerman Renshaw. Since you never got to meet her I thought I'd tell you a little about her and Grandpa, Alfred Renshaw.  Margaret was pretty cool so I'll have to save some of her story for other posts.

My grandparents weren't able to have children.  Some relatives were visiting and told them a sad story.  Another couple, also related, had a newborn baby girl.  But the new mother had died the day after the baby was born, leaving the father with a small boy and a tiny baby.  He felt he couldn't take care of both children and was looking for a good home for the baby.  Alfred and Margaret decided to adopt the baby and so my Mom,  Elizabeth Ann Schrader became a Renshaw and moved to Rushmore Minnesota.  And that is were my story takes place.

We all lived on a farm.  Grandma & Grandpa lived on the farm with us. Actually, I guess it started out as their farm, Grandpa & Dad began farming together after Mom & Dad got married.  There were 2 houses on our farm, we lived in one and they lived in the other.  When I was born our family was living in the "little house" which was a newer, smaller house that sat close to the road.  I guess this house was built for my parents to live in when they moved to the farm.  The "big house" was the original farm house and Grandma & Grandpa lived there.  I guess my Mom grew up in that house but I never heard any talk about that.

One of my earliest memories was the day our family moved into the big house and G & G moved into the little house.  Our family had gotten too big to fit comfortably in our cozy home so we just swapped houses!  All I really remember about that day was carrying my little rocking chair to the big house.  I don't remember living in the little house but I have pictures to prove I did.  Here I am celebrating my 3rd birthday in the little house!

 So, Grandma & Grandpa were our closest neighbors, we saw them everyday.  Grandpa came to our house twice daily for coffee break, in the middle of the morning and mid afternoon, on the farm this was called "lunch".   Here is the breakdown of meals on the farm: breakfast, lunch, dinner, lunch, supper, followed by a large dessert before bed.  We ate a lot!

Most days I saw Grandma because I was sent to her house for some reason.  Shirley and I were Mom and Grandma's  errand runners.  If Mom needed to give something to or borrow something from Grandma, we would go running across the yard to deliver or pickup whatever was needed. I loved to see Grandma so I didn't mind being sent, except at night when I was always worried a wolf might get me, although I have never seen a wolf on the farm.  Crazy kid!  Grandma had some toys at her house that we could play with if we needed to hang out for a while.  There were blocks, and a toy car that was kept under her china hutch.  If Grandpa was around we would play with the car.  Grandpa was getting old and slowing down, so he would sit in his comfy chair across the room.  We would roll the car to him and he would stop it with his foot, then lean down and push it back.  

Grandma always seemed to be baking.  I guess a lot of the treats she baked came to our house because the two of them could not possibly have eaten all of that food!  She made great cookies, angel food cakes and especially pies!  Her pie crusts were amazing, practically a food group by themselves!  Of course, her secret to tender, flaky crusts was lard.  You don't hear about lard much these days, not so good for your arteries!  But if you need to make a really fabulous pie crust from scratch, lard is the way to go.  She always made some extra crust or perhaps she just rolled it so thin that she had some leftover.  The leftover crust would be laid out on a cookie sheet, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, baked and served up warm to the errand runners.  Lucky us!

Grandma's pies came in lots of flavors but the ones I remember the most were lemon meringue, coconut cream and apple .  All delicious!  I don't think I have ever had apple pie as good as Grandma's apple pie. I'm not sure what else she did to make it so special but it was truly amazing!  She also worked wonders with meringue and custards, so smooth and creamy. Perfection!

I got to thinking about her pies this week and realized Aunt Shirley had given me Grandma's coconut cream recipe.  Alas, no recipe for the crust!  But the creamy coconut custard went together easily and a store bought crust did its best to fill in for the memorable pastry, topped off with a beautiful meringue.  The guys and I have been gobbling it up, sorry it won't last until Emily gets here!  But here is Grandma's recipe so you can make it yourself, enjoy!!! 

 Grandma Renshaw's Coconut Cream Pie

Custard

1 3/4 cups milk

1/4 cup white corn syrup

4 T cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs yolks

 1 tsp vanilla

1 cup coconut 

Meringue

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

  Add coconut and vanilla.  Let cool  while you prepare meringue.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pour custard into pie shell and then spread meringue over warm filling.  

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Let cool and then refrigerate.  

*This pie tastes better the second day.

*The custard was very sweet,  next time I might experiment with slightly less sugar.

Enjoy this pie with a cup of coffee at lunch or anytime of day!