First, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Second, in a large mixing bowl, work your vegetable shortening and butter with the flour until it resembles a coarse meal.

Third, In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork and then pour it into the flour/shortening mixture.

Next, Add 5 tablespoons of cold water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

Then, separate the dough in half. Form 2 evenly sized balls of dough and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Slightly flatten each ball of dough (about 1/2-inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

When you are ready to use the dough to make a crust, remove from the fridge and place on a floured surface. Roll the dough, starting at the center and working your way out. (Sprinkle some flour over top of the dough if it’s sticky) If the dough is sticking to the countertop use a bench scraper or any flat metal utensil that you have and carefully scrape it up and flip it over and continue rolling until it’s about ½ inch larger in diameter than your pie pan.

Roll your dough onto your rolling pin in order to lift the dough carefully from the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the corner of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to make a clean edge.

Today, I used a fork to make little marks around the entire edge of the pie for a minimal decorative look.

Then, place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pie crust to protect the crust from the beans or rice that you will pour into it to weight it down during the par-baking process.

Traditionally, most people use dried beans to weigh down their crust when they bake it empty to keep the dough from shrinking, but I was out of dried beans. I used rice instead and it worked just fine.

Bake the pie shell for 15 minutes at 375 degrees until the edges start to turn lightly brown. (Also, don't forget to do an egg wash on the decorated edges of the pie for a beautiful golden color and extra crispiness.)

Once the pie shell is finished baking, let it cool completely before placing the coconut cream filling inside. (I prefer an hour or more.)

First, separate 4 egg yolks and place into a large mixing bowl. I like to keep the extra whites in the fridge for my breakfast. No food waste in this house! (LOL)

Second, add the cornstarch and mix really well. Then, place that to the side.

Third, in your boiling pot, mix the coconut milk, half and half, sugar, and salt together really well and transfer to the stove in order to cook the filling.

Then, cook your filling until it comes to a boil and let it boil for 2 minutes.

Next, take 1/2 cup of the boiling mixture and slowly drizzle it into the large mixing bowl with the egg yolks and cornstarch. You must continually whisk while doing this so that you are tempering your eggs and not end up with scrambled eggs. Tempering your eggs basically means that you are slowly bringing the eggs to the temperature of the boiling mixture. But you do it slowly so that the eggs don't scramble.

After you have incorporated the 1/2 cup milk mixture into the egg yolks, then whisk the tempered egg yolks into the boiling pot with the rest of the milk mixture. It will immediately begin to thicken.

Let it cook for about 1 minute. If you notice it getting too thick, then take it off of the heat and continue to whisk for the remainder of the minute.

Then, add your coconut flakes, almond or vanilla extract, and coconut extract and stir really well.

Finally, add 2 tablespoons of butter. The butter makes it creamy and adds a nice glossy finish to the filling.

Let the filling cool down before adding it to the cooled pie shell.

Add the coconut cream filling to the pie shell and cover the top with plastic wrap to avoid the custard getting a "film" on it. You want the plastic wrap to be completely touching the filling and not having any air between the plastic wrap and the surface of the pie.

Let the pie chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

First, take the cold, heavy whipping cream and add into a large mixing bowl.

Second, add the coconut extract and powdered sugar.

Third, using your electric mixer, mix the ingredients together until a firm whipped topping is formed. You want it to be so thick that you can turn the bowl upside down and the whipped topping doesn't fall out.

Next, you can add the whipped topping to your cooled pie and call it a day or you can take your whipped topping and add to a piping bag in order to make a beautiful design on top of your coconut cream pie.

After topping your chilled coconut cream pie with the coconut whipped topping, sprinkle as many coconut flakes as your heart desires on top of the pie.

Finally, serve the pie immediately, or chill in the fridge until you are ready to indulge!