“Amazing. Mysterious. It could be none other than Impossible Pie, one of the most successful corporate recipe projects in the U.S. food-marketing history. Versions of Impossible Pie were also named Mystery Pie or Amazing Coconut Pie. By any name, though, Americans took to the easy recipe that is adaptable for making both sweet dessert pies and savory meat, vegetable and cheese pies. Back when quiche was trendy, the Impossible Pie formula called for ingredients similar to those for quiche yet eliminated the need to make a separate pastry crust…Not one but two huge food corporations benefited by popularizing the simple recipe formula for the Impossible Pie mixtures: the two big “Generals.” One was the Minneapolis-based General Mills, home of mythical Betty Crocker and maker of Bisquick all-purpose baking mix. The other was General Foods of White Plains, N.Y., marketer of Angel Flake processed coconut…The real mystery: Where did this recipe originate? We know the two “Generals” took a basic formula and then developed variations to showcase their respective products. Lisa Van Riper, spokeswoman for Kraft General Foods, said the company’s well-advertised recipe for Amazing Coconut Pie, “was developed as a result of a creative adaptation of the Bisquick Impossible Pies. We took a Bisquick Impossible Pie and did a creative twist by adding coconut, raisins and some other things. That was developed in June 1976 by our test-kitchen’s task force from a recipe submitted by various sources. Essentially that source was the Bisquick Impossible Pie. The Amazing Coconut Pie recipe also forms its own crust–with the baking mix sinking to the bottom of a custard mixture–and has been used ever since 1976, according to Van Riper. General Mills’ Marcia Copeland, director of Betty Crocker foods and publications, recalls that “we first saw the recipe for (crustless) coconut custard pies in Southern community cookbooks.” So it was a grass-roots recipe first, origin unknown. Some very old community cookbooks contain pie recipes that make their own crusts just from flour; others call for homemade biscuit mix. Copeland said that the Impossible Pie phenomenon lasted from the late 1970s through the 80s… General Mills’ home economists developed variations for Impossible Chicken n’ Broccoli Pie, for Enchilada, Lasagna, Taco, Pizza and Beef Mushroom Impossible Pies, even an Impossible Turkey n’ Stuffing Pie…”

—“Mission: Impossible Pie: The Secret’s in the Batter,” Joyce Rosencranz, Houston Chronicle, June 9, 1993, Foo (p. 1) (Source)

So there you have it. I was not necessarily wrong but found out there is sweet and savoury versions of this amazing pie. So last week I made it for my man. He’s obviously been watching too many cooking shows with me because he scored me an 8 out of 10 saying he could do better. Well, the challenge is on. He better put his pie where his mouth is because I thought it was pretty darn good and I’m not a lover of eggs, as you know. One bowl, all ingredients mixed together, whack it in a pie dish, bake and you’re done. How much easier can you get? It was delicious!

Impossible Pie
(From allrecipes.com)

• 2 cups (500ml) milk
• 1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 120g butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup caster or white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg