Impossible Pie

All of a sudden, it's warm, summery weather. So what do I feel a compulsion to make? Pie.

Actually, what I really want is a cool cream pie. But to make a from-scratch cream pie, I have to stand over the stove stirring a custard - not a pleasant task when it's in the 80s and humid. [One exception I just thought of - key lime pie.] Heat issues aside, I didn't feel like doing a lot of work in the kitchen. I remembered a recipe my coworker gave me - Impossible Pie. It still used the oven and heated my house, but it didn't involve me doing a lot of work.

It's called "impossible pie" because you simply mix all the ingredients together, pour it into a pie pan, put it in the oven, and it comes out as a pie, no separate crust necessary. The original recipe makes two pies, but I only wanted to make one. The ingredient list is simple: just butter, sugar, eggs, self-rising flour, coconut, and milk. For a single pie, I used a half stick melted butter, ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 eggs, ¼ cup flour, ⅝ teaspoon baking powder, ⅛ teaspooon salt, 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, and a cup milk. I poured it in a greased glass 9-inch pan, and baked for 65 minutes at 350F, an extra 5 minutes because I wasn't entirely sure it was done.

I don't have any pictures of it, but there's a nice one on the recipe if you click on the link. The top of the pie was golden, crisp toasted coconut since it floated to the top. The bottom of the pie was eggy and custardy - not quite like a flan, but definitely eggier than my picky taste likes. The softer custard and the crunchy coconut went well together. The pie was lightly coconuty and lightly sweet.

This is by no means my favorite pie - I don't like eggy custard, and I do like my coconut pies to be intensely coconuty, which this wasn't. However, this recipe gets an enormous about of credit for being very easy to make. The pie was mixed together and ready to go into the oven by the time it was preheated. I can't think of an easier dessert to make, and it's a decent pie that got some compliments at work. I have to recommend you try it once if you want a homemade dessert to take somewhere, but don't want to put a lot of effort into it.

📖 Recipe