Impossible Coconut Pie

I suppose it's the mark of a successful recipe when you dig into the dish so quickly that you don't have time to take a photograph of it first!

That was certainly the case with this pudding, the 'Impossible' Coconut Pie, taken from the 'Food and Wine' magazine and passed on to me by my Canadian friend Jody.  Having finally managed to source desiccated coconut here in Brunei (in Le Apple Bakery, for any readers in Brunei who may be interested) I ended up making this dish twice in one week, once for personal consumption (well, I did share it with Rob!) and then once as a contribution to a pot-luck supper with my colleagues. 

Two huge pies, and this was the point at which I finally managed to point my camera towards it:

The 'Impossible' in the name of this pie is down to the fact that it seems to miraculously form its own crust when baking - in fact it forms 2 crusts: a soft and slightly chewy bottom layer, and a cakey top layer.  In the middle is a delicious coconutty-egg-custard.

The recipe can be found here, on the Food and Wine website, but I made a couple of adaptations so 'my' recipe for it follows:

Impossible Coconut Pie

½ cup melted butter, plus more for greasing
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
½ cup self-raising flour
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter two 9 inch glass pie plates, or 1 large pyrex dish.

In a large bowl whisk the melted butter and sugar.

Add eggs and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour, coconut and milk.

Divide mixture between the two pie plates - or pour it all into the large pyrex (the mixture is very liquid) - and bake in the lower third of the oven (unsure if this is necessary when you have a fan-oven as I do...) for about 1 hour until pies are firm to the touch and golden.

My large pie was ready in an hour (when the middle stops wobbling!) but I covered it with foil after about 40 minutes as I thought it was browning rather too fast. 

This is most definitely a 'pudding' - not as glamorous as a 'dessert' - but homely and comforting.  It doesn't look beautiful (in fact it looks rather plain) but tastes divine.  We ate it warmed on its own, cold on its own, and hot or cold with ice-cream, but it would certainly be great with cream or custard too.