Amazing Coconut Pie

This is a recipe that used to hang on Nana's fridge. Jenna remembers it always being a special treat when they would come to visit and indulging on the huge slice of pie that they would be given. As in, quarter-of-the-pie slice. And being the good pie that it was, there wasn't a complaint about this portion size to be heard!

And now here I am, trying to take this nostalgic, liquid stained, annotated recipe that holds a place near and dear to my wife's heart, and remake it.

Tough act to follow for sure.

But try we did. And here are the results.

This recipe gives quite the claim: it is self-proclaimed "Amazing". It even says that some people call it the "Impossible Pie" due to its self-crusting powers. "Impossible" doesn't seem to bode well for our efforts.

So we gathered all our ingredients, and thankfully we already had most of them in our pantry save for some coconut flakes and some biscuit mix. So just a quick trip to the grocery store and we were done.

The instructions are also very simple. Through everything, except the coconut, into a bowl and blend on low speed with a hand mixer for a few minutes. Then (per the handwritten notes), add the coconut and blend again for a few minutes.

Hand mixer? Who would use a hand mixer when they just got a stand mixer? Pssh. I'm going to make this easier. Everything in the bowl; everything mixed, and everything into the pie dish in the oven for the 40 minute allotted time. Let's do this!

OK. Hmm. Well....Yeah...That didn't go so hot. And there are a couple reasons for that we think.

What went wrong:

• Mistake #1: I changed it. I broke rule number one and changed the instructions. They very clearly said to use a hand mixer, NOT a stand mixer, and in my stubborn state (family trait, I can't help it), I decided I was too good for the hand mixer. This did not break down the butter the way it should have and thus caused too many pools of greasiness oozing out the middle. 
• Mistake #2: I used stick butter instead of margarine. Is this REALLY a mistake? I don't know. The recipe actually gave the option of using either one, and for this first option, I chose to go with stick butter. 
• Mistake #3: I used a shallow pie dish and even though the diameter was the right size, the depth was not. 

Waiting on the 40 minutes to conclude, sitting on the couch, the wonderful smell of coconut starting filling the house. Imagining that the pie was almost ready, and eager to see the finished results, I hopped quickly to my feet to go peak through the oven. What I would see would...well it would make me realize that things had gone wrong. 

Very wrong. 

The pie had risen well above the rim of the pie dish, causing pie juice (eww) to drip down the side of the pie pan and into the bottom of our oven. The juice cooking on our oven was what was causing this very misleading aroma to fill the house. To top this all off, you could actually see the inside boiling away and the resulting bubbles pushing chunks ever closer to the edge of the pie dish. Thankfully, we through a cookie sheet beneath it before multiple large chunks did nose dive off the edges. This, added with the pools of butter, told us pretty quick that a second try was much needed. 

Just look at this mess: 

Enter stage 2. 

I got a deeper pie pan, I switched the butter for margarine, and I broke out the hand mixer. 

I threw it all into the pie dish again and went to bake (this time on a cookie sheet from the very beginning to prevent any issues from unwanted spillage again) and we waited. Thinking that maybe the first batch just needed some more time as well, I set the time for 45 minutes. That came and went. 50 minutes. 55. It was over an hour before it was finally done and a nice brown color on top. 

And so there is the final product. "Amazing Coconut Pie". Didn't taste half bad either. Granted, you better like coconut and custard since that is the consistency of this pie. (I'm not a huge fan of either, but in the spirit of this blog, I tried it. Still don't really like it, but everyone else does, so at least I have that going for me.)

So how did my final product taste to my wife, the very one who loved this pie as a child?

The moment of silence after asking this question told me a lot. Not quite there, but I got a: "It resembled it." To her, the consistency was off. She claims she remembers a slightly different recipe that had a few more notes. Her thinking is that Nana used to up the biscuit mix to a half a cup to help out. Unfortunately, we don't have that recipe. But if it ever turns up, we will definitely give it a try. 

For those of you following along at home, here is the recipe: 

• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs (per the handwritten notes. original calls for 4)
• 1/2 cup biscuit mix 
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup coconut flakes sweetened

1. Mix the milk, sugar, butter, eggs, biscuit mix, and vanilla using a hand mixer on low speed for 3-5 minutes. 
2. Add in the coconut flakes and mix for another 1-2 minutes. (per handwritten notes - if you want to go original, pour everything into a pie dish, let stand 5 minutes, top with 1 cup coconut flakes and then bake).
3. Pour in a pie dish. 
4. Cook at 350F for 40-60 minutes until golden brown. 

If you give it a go, let me know! I would love to see how your's turns out. 

EIO