This Retro Impossible Pie Is Impossibly Easy

If you’ve ever picked up a box of Bisquick, you’ve likely seen one of its “impossibly easy” recipes printed on the box—dishes ranging from sweet pies to savory casseroles. What you may not know is that one recipe started this entire series: the Impossible Pie.

This Bisquick classic is a sweet and simple coconut custard pie that you mix up in a blender, then pour right into a pie plate. No crust is necessary, because it creates its own as it bakes.

The Debut of the Impossible Pie

It’s a little unclear when exactly the recipe for Impossible Coconut Pie was first published, but many sources point to the 1970s. Home cooks had been using Bisquick—a boxed mix of flour, baking powder, vegetable oil, and a little salt—for decades as a quick and easy way to whip up biscuits, pancakes, and other dishes. Many of these recipes were published on the back of its box, and that’s likely where Impossible Coconut Pie first appeared, too.

Dozens of other “impossible” recipes made with Bisquick were published throughout the 1980s (like this Impossible Broccoli and Cheese Pie). Eventually, the company changed the names to “impossibly easy” so that customers would understand that what makes these dishes seem impossible is how little effort it takes to make them.

How to Make Impossible Coconut Pie

Making an Impossible Coconut Pie simply involves whizzing just seven ingredients together in a blender. Besides Bisquick, you'll also need shredded coconut, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract.

The blended mixture is poured into a greased pie plate and baked at 350°F for about 50 minutes. No pie crust is necessary because the mixture sets as it bakes into a stable, sliceable texture. After baking, the pie is cooled; it can be served warm or chilled.

How Does This Pie Taste?

While some coconut pies have a thick and creamy filling, an Impossible Coconut Pie has a delicate, silky texture similar to that of an old-fashioned egg custard pie or an Indiana sugar cream pie. The filling has just a little chewiness from the shredded coconut. The flavor of this pie is sweet and coconutty with a little hint of vanilla—delicious in its simplicity.

If you’re looking for a little more oomph, it’s easy enough to add more flavor to this pie with a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg, or even a splash of rum.

As someone who has baked a lot of pies (mostly with crusts), the real marvel of an "impossible pie" is how quickly you can whip this up and throw it in the oven—there's no pie pastry to roll or chill, and no fillings to simmer. It leaves me to wonder if that's where the expression “easy as pie” originated.

Tips for Making Impossible Coconut Pie

Impossible Coconut Pie is done when the top is browned and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. The top of my pie turned a chestnut brown very quickly, so I draped a piece of foil over the top to shield it for the remaining time in the oven.

My 9-inch pie plate was filled right to the brim with the liquid filling, so I recommend placing it on a baking sheet. This simple step will catch any spills and make it easier to move the pie in and out of the oven. 

The easy, sweet, and chewy coconut pie is very good as-is, but feel free to top it off with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. Both additions can be homemade, of course, but store-bought would be impossibly easy.