Easy Coconut Custard Pie (Impossible Pie)

When I think of “Impossible Pie”, I think of the savoury kind. You know the old ‘shake and bake’ pie that has been doing the rounds for years? I remember my sister giving me the recipe for that years ago and it’s a great recipe to have to whip up a quick crustless quiche for a mid-week dinner. Just throw all the ingredients together, the crust forms from the little bit of flour added and the cheese added makes it go golden on top. It’s one of my favourite ‘go to’ recipes.

But when I met my fiance, he talked about Impossible Pie being his favourite pie. I made him the savoury one and he said “that’s not it, it’s supposed to be sweet and taste like coconut”. After a little bit of research this is what I found out about the ‘amazing’ Impossible Pie.

“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

1. Place milk, coconut, eggs, vanilla, flour, margarine and sugar in blender. Mix well.
2. Pour into a greased and floured 25cm pie plate. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
3. Bake at 180 degrees C for 45 minutes.

Three cheese & spinach pie

Or, otherwise known as “use up the cheeses you have in the fridge before they go off” pie. I didn’t manage to stretch the fresh vegetables and salad ingredients out to the end of the weekend so I was searching the fridge and freezer for inspiration last night and this Greek style cheese and spinach pie came to mind.

I always like to keep a pack of spinach in the freezer. Its always good for a standby meal, whether it’s used with ricotta in a pasta dish or mixed with eggs and other cheeses and baked in pastry.

My son was reluctant to try it (probably because of the ‘green’ bits) but he did and said it was very tasty. I’ll have to make sure I get my salad vegetables so I can enjoy the leftovers with salad this week for lunches. You could encase this filling in filo pastry and fold into triangles for something a little different.

Three Cheese & Spinach Pie

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 pack frozen spinach, thawed
• any selection of soft cheeses (I used feta and ricotta)
• grated cheddar cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt & pepper
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry

1. Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
2. Add eggs, spinach, soft cheeses, garlic, salt and pepper and mix well.
3. Line baking dish with thawed puff pastry and pour in filling.
4. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and bake until pastry and filling is golden.
5. Serve warm or cold.

Greek Lamb & Potato free form pie

This recipe for Greek lamb is one of my favourites. You can throw it in the slow cooker and be transformed to one of the Greek islands, imagining you’re throwing back a couple of Ouzos while the heady scents of garlic, lemon and oregano are wafting through your house. You can use any cut of lamb. I used ‘el cheapo’ lamb shoulder chops but it works well on a lamb leg or shoulder, diced lamb, lamb ribs, necks, just about anything.

Once cooked, the meat just falls off the bone and I sometimes use it wrapped in pita bread with salad and a dip of some sort or served with Greek potatoes (diced, par boiled potatoes, tossed in olive oil and a little oregano or rosemary and then baked until golden) and vegetables.

Last night, I decided to serve it with cubed potatoes wrapped in a light, buttery pastry ‘free form’ style. No need to worry about lining pie plates or having the pastry shrink.

Greek Lamb & Potato Free Form Pie

3-4 lamb shoulder chops (or any cut of lamb)
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs dried oregano
juice of 1 lemon
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

3-4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tbs red wine/balsamic vinegar
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil (for lamb/potato mixture)

Combine first five ingredients into a slow cooker (or alternatively, bake in the oven, covered in foil) for 3-4 hours on slow. Remove meat from bones and set aside.

Pastry:
1.1/2 cups plain flour
100gm butter, cubed
4-5 tbs cold water

Rub butter into flour until crumbs form. Add water and, using a butter knife, mix into flour/butter until pastry comes together. (You could also use a food processor to combine.) You may need a little more water if the mixture is too dry. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Par boil diced potatoes. Allow to cool slightly before putting in pastry.

Roll out pastry into an oval shape, large enough to pile lamb/potato mixture onto, allowing 2-3″ (5-7cm) of pastry on the outside.

Combine diced lamb and potatoes, 1 tbs balsamic or red wine vinegar and extra 1 tbs olive oil. Pile on top of pastry and fold up pastry around the outside, folding in every 5cm to form a pie.

Bake in a 180 deg C oven (160 deg C fan forced) for approx 30 mins or until pastry is golden.

Serve with lemon wedges, a drizzle of Greek yoghurt (or Tzatziki – Cucumber/Yoghurt dip) and garnish with parsley. Serve with Greek salad or vegies of your choice.

Just delicious! This would also work well as a picnic food, served cold.

Baby Cottage Pies

On Tuesday, I had to work in the evening and while the oven was on, after baking a batch of biscuits, I thought I’d better make good use of it and get dinner on. I had mince defrosted but wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. I’m always thinking of food that ‘the kids’ will eat because I get tired of serving them chicken nuggets one night and fish fingers the next. (Trouble is, they don’t seem to mind that.) I thought about individual Cottage Pies but with a pastry bottom so they could be easily taken out of the patty pan tin and popped in the freezer. (And besides, the husband prefers a pastry bottom on his Cottage Pie.)

I also didn’t know if I should be calling them “Cottage Pies” or “Shepherd’s Pies”. As far as I knew, “Shepherd’s Pie” is usually made from lamb or mutton. I can remember, as a young girl, Mum mincing up the leftover roast lamb always for a Shepherd’s Pie. She also made a beautiful shortcrust pastry bottom, made with lard. Mmmmmmm! She used one of those old fashioned hand mincers that attached to the table. I wonder if she’s still got it. I’d love to get my hands on it, for prosperity. Myself and my two sisters always used to love mincing the meat with the old mixer.

What Wikipedia says about Cottage pies:

Cottage pie refers to a British or Irish meat pie made with beef mince and with a crust made from mashed potato. A variation on this dish is known as shepherd’s pie.
The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor (cf. “cottage” meaning a modest dwelling for rural workers).
In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat of any kind, and the pie dish was lined with mashed potato as well as having a mashed potato crust on top. The term “shepherd’s pie” did not appear until the 1870s, and since then it has been used synonymously with “cottage pie”, regardless of whether the principal ingredient was beef or mutton. There is now a popular tendency for “shepherd’s pie” to be used when the meat is mutton or lamb, with the suggested origin being that shepherds are concerned with sheep and not cattle. This may, however, be an example of folk etymology.

Baby Cottage Pies

300gm beef mince (or whatever meat you like)
oil for frying
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbs gravy powder
1/2 cup water
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs tomato sauce
salt & pepper

Potato topping:
3 medium potatoes
2 tbs butter and milk for mashing

frozen puff pastry

Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Boil potatoes until tender and mash with butter and milk. Brown onion in oil then add mince and cook until brown. Add grated vegetables, sauces, gravy powder, water and seasoning. Cook until thickened. Allow to cool. Line cupcake pan with circles of pastry. Spoon mince mixture into pastry and top with mashed potato. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 18 small pies. One large pie could be made with this recipe as well. Recipe is suitable to freeze.

My kids didn’t eat them. The boy did like the look of them, that is until he saw a pea and my daughter wouldn’t touch them. Hubby and I enjoyed them. Don’t forget the good slurp of tomato sauce.