It’s handy to have a basic cream pie recipe available.  From it you can make vanilla, chocolate, coconut, banana cream pie, and more.

We’ve used this recipe for over 20 years to make everything from coconut cream to strawberry cream pies.  We’ll give you the basic cream pie recipe and then tell you how to make other scrumptious pies with the basic recipe.

Filling

2/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoons salt
2 cups milk
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon butter
1 baked nine-inch pie shell
1 cup whipped cream for topping
sugar for whipped cream (3 tablespoons or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract for whipped cream

Directions

1. Place the dry ingredients in a saucepan.
2. Wisk the egg yolks with the milk.  Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients in the saucepan, stirring after each addition.
3. Heat over low heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture is thick and just begins to bubble.
4. Add the butter and vanilla and stir.
5. Let the mixture cool for fifteen minutes and then remove the filling to the baked pie shell.  Chill for several hours.

Variations

Banana Cream Pie

Cover the bottom of the pie shell with sliced ripe bananas.  Pour the cream filling over the bananas.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Add one cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to the mixture when you begin to heat the filling.

Double-Decker Cherry Cream

Spread a can of cherry pie filling over the vanilla cream filling after the pie has cooled.

Coconut Cream Pie

If you have coconut flavor, substitute the coconut for vanilla in the base recipe.

Toast one cup of sweetened, flaked coconut.  Mix one half cup into the filling just before adding the filling to the pie shell.  Sprinkle the other one half cup over the whipped cream topping.