Daddy's Pie

In the latest edition of Many Pies, a recipe from Feasting on Asphalt: the River Run, for Nana Deane's Pecan Coconut Pie, billed as "the pie coconut was created for." The recipe comes courtesy of Ray's Dairy Maid in Barton, Arkansas. It has everything we like in our treats: sugar, butter, vanilla, coconut, and pecans. What else do you need?


*a more legible copy of Nana Deane's recipe here

I transcribed the recipe hurriedly. I hope my handwriting is not usually so erratic. This is one of the easiest pie recipes I've ever seen, but it was quite good nonetheless. I cheated and used Pillsbury Just Unroll! Pie Crusts - in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store - and that made it even easier. Making a pastry pie crust is a real labor of love, in my opinion. It adds a good hour of prep time to any pie recipe, and that doesn't even include the time the dough spends in the refrigerator before rolling or the time in the freezer before the crust goes into the oven for blind-baking. Then you've got to cool the crust before adding the filling. And THEN you usually have to cook or chill the filled pie and wait and wait and ...

That is why I want to be the cake lady. I've only made a handful of pie crusts from scratch, and I don't know that anyone notices when I substitute the Pillsbury crusts instead. I haven't bought frozen pie crusts, but I've read that the flavor is off in those. The problem with the crust today was that the Pillsbury crusts are for 9" pies, but I ordered a pie pan that says "Daddy's Pie" (see above), and it's a 10" pan. There was no way to use one pre-shaped dough round and have sufficient dough for fluting the edge. I cut some dough from a second round and pressed it against the first so I'd have some dough to crimp. I also cut a couple of dough scraps for Daddy and Wendy to eat. Daddy has wonderful memories of eating my grandmother's pie dough as a boy. A small bite of this Pillsbury dough was enough for both of them, so I know this convenience food is missing something!

I rushed the pie's cooling time quite a bit by sticking it in the freezer after it came out of the oven. When it was time to cut the pie, I pulled it and some homemade vanilla ice cream out of the freezer. Good eats -