The Boomer Dessert That Stands The Test Of Time

All millennials grew up with a fair few Boomer foods in our diet. It's only natural, your parents are going to share with you the foods that they ate growing up, both because that's what they know how to cook and because they want to share that nostalgia. It can be said without a shadow of doubt that many of these foods that Boomers loved that are less popular today are less popular for a reason. For some — like Vienna sausages — nostalgia really was the only thing they had going for them. But when it comes to desserts, my family had one recipe that's as good now as it ever was: impossible pie.

The "impossible" part of the name comes from just how impossibly easy this pie is to put together. It is essentially a coconut custard pie, but simpler — much simpler. All you have to do is mix the ingredients together — eggs, flour, milk, baking powder, melted butter, sugar, salt, and dried coconut — pour them into a pie dish, and toss it in the oven for about 30 minutes. The dish you get at the end far outweighs the effort, a magical transformation from just a few minutes of work into a smooth, delicious custard pie with plenty of coconut and just the right amount of sweetness.

It isn't hard to see why this recipe was a staple for my large family growing up. It's a nice homemade dessert that you can get on the table for special occasions without really needing to think about it. With that sorted, there's more space to focus on the rest of dinner, or maybe even sit on the couch for a few minutes after work.

The real trick with this recipe is that it's a self-crusting pie. What that means is that instead of needing to blind-bake a pie crust — or worry about making or buying one at all — flour is added straight into the filling instead. This settles to the bottom and creates a sort of faux crust, while the dried coconut rises to the top, and the center becomes a lovely custard. Impossibly, despite everything being mixed together in one bowl at the start, it separates into three lovely layers.

When I was a kid, my parents were happy for any trick that helped them save time putting dinner on the table. Unfortunately, it would seem that this conundrum has only gotten worse over time. These days, folks report having significantly less time available for cooking than they did a few decades ago, which is what makes this recipe such a useful dish. Once you have that impossible pie recipe bookmarked, dessert doesn't have to be luxury meant just for special occasions.m 

At its core, this recipe is a simple one, and just those base ingredients are plenty delicious. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved that sweet, slightly eggy coconut custard flavor. Once you've tried the original, though, you can also see it as something of a blank slate ready for a bit of personal flair. 

The simplest way to put your own spin on this coconut impossible pie recipe would be to sprinkle in some spices or finish it with a nice garnish. Coconut goes beautifully with the whole array of warm baking spices. Try baking it with chai spices and a touch of ginger for a much more complex dessert. Or, if you want to go even simpler in your upgrades, simply grating a bit of chocolate over the top of the finished pie or stirring a bit of lime zest into the filling could be a single-ingredient addition to add some intrigue and make the recipe your own.

Should you want to really make your impossible pie recipe unique, there are a lot of avenues you can take. At its core, impossible pie is very similar to clafoutis, a traditional French dessert. Clafoutis is centered around a fruit — like cherry clafoutis or blueberry clafoutis — but the fruits are baked in a similar floury custard. Finding the middle ground between coconut impossible pie and clafoutis may take a bit of research or experimentation, but the resulting recipe could be both a show-stopper and impossibly simple. 

My own children might grow up with a very different idea of impossible pie, one built not just around dried coconut, but also chunks of fresh mango and a custard perfumed with lime zest and whispers of cinnamon and clove. There are plenty of vintage pie flavors out there, and some of them are probably better forgotten about entirely. I can tell you from years of experience, however — both eating it and making it myself — coconut impossible pie is one that the Boomers got right.