I have bought clotted cream, etc., from this lady who sells tea and assorted items and she sent me this recipe for Impossible Pie that I just have to try:


Impossible Pie"

4 eggs
1/4 cup marg
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups milk
1 cup coconut
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Blend together and pour into a buttered 10" pie tin-I prefer glass
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
Allow to cool before cutting and serving with your favorite pot of tea.

I hope you enjoy this Impossible Pie and share it with a friend.

Posted by Lady Caroline

I also have a recipe where I use Ritz Crackers for a pie that tastes exactly like homemade Apple Pie. Starting to think about the holidays!!!!

I made both the Impossible Pie and Ritz Mock Apple Pie when I was a teen. It makes you wonder how people think these things up. I think the Ritz pie came about during WWII when people had to use food coupons.

I think you're probably right, because why would anyone use ritz crackers if she/he could use real apples?

Impossible Pie sounds like coconut custard pie, one of my favorites -- I wonder why it's "impossible"?

If memory serves, I think it turns into a pie with sort of a crust on the bottom, custard in the middle and coconut on top, even though everything is mixed all together before it's baked.

Pudding cake is another weird favorite:
http://nookandpantry.blogspot.com/2008/02/...dding-cake.html

I think so, too. I have read wartime recipes in vintage magazines and I saw a recipe for meatloaf that was mostly cream of wheat, and stuffed cabbage rolls that used noodles and bread crumbs to fill out a half a pound of meat.

Actually, Mock Apple Pie is much older. Nabisco 'borrowed' Mock Apple Pie during the Great Depression from nineteenth century pioneers as a back-of-the-box type recipe to sell more Ritz crackers. There was a wave of creative recipes calling for unusual ingredients (such as sauerkraut in chocolate cake batter) during the thirties and forties to stretch families' food budgets or compensate for wartime rationing.

From Wikipedia (scroll down to Apple Pie in American Culture): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_pie

And that's what happens when you pay attention at Girl Scout meetings.
_

My last husband loved Mock Apple Pie and could not believe that it did not contain a single apple. My grandmother and my Mother made this back in the day. They used this recipe during the depression, that's for sure.

Well, that explains it, then -- I never paid any attention at all at Girl Scout meetings, instead ran around the school basement with my best friend until we were politely ex-communicated in the sixth grade.

The pioneer explanation makes sense -- people on the move, no access to orchards, etc. The Depression explanation makes less sense -- victory gardens, etc., self-sufficiency, surely there was sufficient access to apple trees, no?

I've had a wonderful little paperback cookbook, The Good Cake Book, for years and have made dozens of recipes, including chocolate sauerkraut cake, chocolate zucchini cake, carrot beet cake, and tomato soup spice cake. I love trying weird things. That reminds me, I need to make the Tomato Soup Oatmeal Bars.

Bisquick latched onto the impossible pie recipes for an advertising campaign back in the late 1960's. The homemade versions (not using Bisquick) were less salty.
The original recipes that were passed around churches and neighborhoods involved a coconut version as well as one with bacon. They were groovy !

I might be making this any day now. I just noticed my half and half is about to expire and I have all the other ingredients. I will substitute butter for margarine, though.

Anyone else ever make Three Hole Chocolate Cake?
It's another goofy one. The twist is you mix the dry ingredients in the pan, make three indentations for the three liquid ingredients, pour water over the whole thing, mix it all together with a spoon and end up with a delicious moist cake.
It's really tastes good and keeps you from having to wash a lot of bowls.
Cooks.com has a few recipes for this cake.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,155172-254193,00.html

There is a slight mistake in the frosting recipe. See if you can spot it!

This is a cheap and easy cake for me to make when I have a sweet craving, since I always have the ingredients on hand. Instead of frosting, I may throw some chocolate chips into the cake batter instead. It's too difficult to transport a frosted cake slice to work.

I see the cube of butter but when I posted it I didn't scroll down far enough to see the frosting recipe because, like you, I don't think this cake needs frosting.... but I'm not a frosting person.

Here's another strange old recipe.  This used to be sold for St. Patrick's Day in the 50s.

Irish Potato Candy

1 potato
1 box of powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons ground Cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated Sugar

Boil and peel the potato.
Mash with a fork in a mixing bowl.
Mix in 1/4 cup of powdered sugar.
Add the cocoa.
Add more powdered sugar until it becomes like a dough. (it depends on the size of the potato.)
Form the dough into 1 inch Orbs.
Mix cinnamon and granulated sugar in a bag.
Toss the dough Orbs in the cinnamon sugar bag to coat them.

They look like little potatoes but they taste like candy.

OMG, my mother used to make Peanut Butter Pinwheels, which was a potato candy. She made the dough with potatoes and confectioner's sugar, I think minus any other ingredients, maybe a little milk -- you roll it out and then spread peanut butter on top, and then roll it up like a jelly roll and slice it. They just melt in your mouth.

They call it "peanut butter roll" in these parts and it's a sacred institution with local candy companies. I'd never had it before moving here.
"Can't sit still and eat it" is the proclamation from the masses. True

I made that potato candy when I was a kid. Eh, no thanks. It took me years to learn to make "real" fudge, the kind where you boil it on the stove, not melt chocolate chips and other stuff in a bowl. Now that's my version of heaven!

It is so much fun to read about these recipes. I remember my mom making tomato soup cake with Campbell's tomato soup. It was delicious. She also made the chocolate cake with the three holes in the batter into which you added ingredients. It's funny how food and scent can bring back memories very vividly. I remember making snickerdoodles as a teenager. They were cinnamony and good!

Does anyone remember the Pillsbury baking contest cookbook? I think it was a small paperback type book. I was just learning to cook seriously -- maybe I was 11 or 12 -- and took great pride and pleasure in making most things in that book. The recipe I remember most used only two ingredients: Ice cream and self-rising flour. It made a quick bread. I remember thinking that was so cool.

Right now I've got sticky toffee pudding in the oven. I had some dates in my fridge forever, so figured I'd make it. This recipe isn't for purists because it adds chocolate chips to the batter. I could eat sticky toffee pudding every single day of my life. I have several different recipes and my goal is to make them all and come up with the best. Then to go to that famous hotel in England's Lake District where it was invented, to compare.

I stumbled upon this recipe and am very tempted to make it!

http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blc128.htm

The thing about Mock Apple Pie's origins during food shortage era doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't apples be more plentiful than Ritz Crackers back then? Not to mention cheaper?

Not to mention more time consuming to peel, and Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie is more fun. And maybe they just like that recipe, whether it's "mock" something else or not.

If Ritz Crackers merged with PolyGram Records and Warners Bros. Studios you'd have

Poly Warner Cracker.





Get an apple peeler.



Modern models can slice and core. They peel potatoes, too, which is great for potato salad in the summertime. Mine is a geared cast iron affair from my great-great grandmother. It can peel rutabaga and turnips.



You could make a Mock Ritz Cracker Pie!

Interesting that the French term for potato is pomme de terre (apple of the earth) because the texture is so similar to that of an apple.

Okay ! That settles it! I'm having folks over to dinner this weekend ---- and dessert will be Impossible Pie ---
because it's a 'depression' dinner. Maybe some coffee ice-cream to go with the pie? I don't yet know what
Mr. SD (Head chef) plans on serving as the main, but will keep you all posted.....

Veronica , if this thread had been called "the Mock Apple Pie" thread you would have won a super duper special Veneering full circle wordplay award , however it is called Impossible Pie.

still, I think that post alone is worthy of an honourable mention , kudos !

I know, I know. Thanks for playing and you'll receive the Mrs Veneering's Full-Circle Wordplay at-home version of our game and some lovely parting gifts.





Very cool. You should start a "Suggestions for a Great Depression Dinner Party" thread. Vintage recipes. Vintage clothing.

Well, my mother and I made the Impossible Pie today.
I'm wondering if it wasn't called "impossible" because it didn't have sugar, not much flour, and no real crust to speak of.
It was quite salty and it reminded me a bit of a non-sweet, plain bread pudding/custard.
I guess if I were starving and served that...I'd eat it gladly.
If I was just making it because my family hadn't had any sweet treats for a long time and things were being rationed...I'd probably save the coconut, flour, milk...for something else.

Oh, and it made me wonder...if folks were low on sugar and flour...it sure would be odd they'd have shredded coconut in the house.
I'm assuming this was made around the time of WWII when there was rationing and I keep wondering how many people would have had coconut in their homes...

Okay Catie, I'll take yr recommendations --- but it's on the menu so ----Also, I understood, that there's no
'crust' to speak of, but did you use oleo? I was thinking unsalted butter, instead. That would certainly reduce the
saltiness, ya think? And you would suggest more sweetening?

The only thing I can think of re the coconut --- maybe it was a part of ration packages. Maybe they had lots of K-rations
left over from the Pacific theatre i.e. dried coconut flakes ;-). . . . Maybe they used coconut in the rations, 'cause, it's
relatively dry/light and nutrient dense. Any other ideas, gang?

SofiaDurango, my mother wanted to add sugar. I was afraid that tampering with the recipe might mess it up.
LOL
I used plain old cheap Parkay margarine. I think maybe using unsalted butter might be better since you do use a quarter of a teaspoon of salt.
It doesn't really have a crust -- you're right about that. It's more of an egg "crust". It reminded me of another food I've eaten ... but I can't put my finger on just what it is.
It wasn't horrible. It's just something I could do without if I was having to "do without" in general, in my life.
Besides...I'm a diabetic so I shouldn't even be eating sweets.
Truthfully, it was a little sweet from the milk and coconut -- a teeny bit sweet.
For folks who enjoy custards...that aren't sweet...this is just the ticket!

Oh, and you're so very clever about the coconut! I get hung up on little things like that, ya know? LOL

Two of my favorite things are vetiver and dairy cattle. Every school science report from third grade through high school involved cows from digestive tract to bovine spongiform encephalitis so if this doesn't get the Veneering Award, I don't know what will.

Vetiver has been used as a component in silage but due to its high silica content must be combined with other materials for proper nutrition and digestion. Found on the Internet: Journal of Animal Science, 1922, The Value of Coconut Meat as a Feed for Dairy Cows. The author comes to pretty much the same conclusion as with vetiver-based fodder: coconut meal (the dry leftovers after processing the copra) must be mixed with other silages for optimum health and vitality. Those tests were conducted on the west coast where coconut and coconut byproducts imported from Pacific islands would be readily accessible. Kind of boring; not recommended reading.

Could not find coconut use in WWII US lightweight K ration, the emergency D ration or the food-for-the-day C ration although the Army has been known to use soldiers as guinea pigs. Climate-specific rations were developed. None of the sources mentioned having used coconut (meal, meat or flakes) or as an ingredient (as wheat is an ingredient of lasagna in the form of pasta) and nothing regarding the climate-specific rations such as those for the Pacific theater so there is the possiblity of coconut; however, I do not think the military discards those things. Members of my family were treated to WWII leftovers while in the Korean Conflict. Another consideration: Does coconut easily spoil?

I 'phoned my grandmother. According to genealogy charts she lives on a rural dairy farm. As opposed to an urban dairy farm, no doubt. That's my mother for you.

1. Grandma thought the cows would have a tough time cracking the coconuts. Further information regarding coconut meal 'cow chow' unavailable as the subject questioned the veracity of the interviewer although I remember warnings about climbing the dangerous silo, preparing fodder from crops and mowing alfalfa and timothy; our family was self-sufficient in the livestock feed department.

2. The grocery store in La Crosse, Wisconsin did not carry coconuts.

3. She wants me to come visit her and it is high time for me to find a husband and settle down. She's not getting any younger, you know.

I wonder, are we making this thing right? Are we supposed to use coconut meat or coconut flakes? I checked other Internet recipes: coconut. Without specifying.

This is all reminiscent of the Bisquick impossible quiches and pies of the 80s and 90s where everything got mixed up, put into a pie tin and baked. It all came out with a crust although none was made for it.

Maybe the coconut should be the sweetened type. Hey Chard - it was your recipe. What say you?

It's the coconut readily found in any supermarket baking section. Shredded or flaked depends on your preference.

I couldn't quite follow VelvetV's thread re vetiver sillage/cows/and and coconuts.... ;-) How did vetiver and cows come into the
conversation? Just curious........
I kinda thought the Grandma and visiting in a distant state/area topical, as I'd just seen Sarah Silverman's vid called
"Schlepping to Florida" i.e. her asking young Jewish liberals to visit their conservative grandparents (FL) and convincing
Zaidy and Bubek to vote liberal as well ;-)

Anyway, I made the pie today, but have not tasted it yet (dessert). I added 1/2 cup raw sugar, and used unsalted butter,
so there's only 1/4 tsp of salt added. I also used large, unsweetened coconut flakes. It looks nice, if I do say so myself.
I'll let you know how it tastes. Will serve with H-Dazs coffee (even if it's only so-so I figure the H-D should help ;-) )