This so-called “impossible” gluten free coconut pie is another of our favorite family recipes. It really is embarrassingly easy, and now that I make it gluten free and dairy free too, it seems so easy and delicious that it must be impossible … but I promise that it isn’t!
We typically serve this pie at Easter, which only reminds us of how much we love the recipe, thereby causing us to crave it every month thereafter, until we are ultimately distracted by some other series of desserts (often, not until Christmas cookies!), only to revisit the recipe a few short months later, and to be reminded of how much we love it … which makes us want to make it again … anyway, you get the picture.
It truly is one of my springtime favorites because it is so quick and easy – I mean, what could be easier than a crustless pie?
And don’t for a minute think that you can’t enjoy a custard pie because you avoid dairy; with this recipe, you have no such worries! I’ve made this recipe using coconut milk, rice milk, soy milk, almond milk … hopefully you’re getting the idea. It’s pretty forgiving. They all work!
In fact, it’s so forgiving that I’ve made this recipe with 1 1/2 cups coconut or 2 cups coconut (when I was short on coconut once, but just had to have this pie!) and it worked both ways! I’ve also made it with sweetened coconut and unsweetened coconut, flaked coconut and shredded coconut. They all turned out yummy!
The key is adding that touch of my gfJules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. It’s just enough to add a bit of “skin,” so to speak that settles to the bottom and helps it to form enough of a crust to hold it all together.
And since my gfJules Flour isn’t gritty and doesn’t have a funny flavor, texture, smell or anything else funny, you’d never even know it was inside. Which means no one else would ever know the pie was gluten free.
Wonderful hot out of the oven, cold, or even room temperature, I recommend doubling the recipe, because one pie is never enough!
Maybe make one pie in a large dish and several smaller ramekins or mugs for portion control? Of course, you could use larger ramekins, depending on how much control you think you need!
Easy Gluten Free Coconut Pie
Easy Gluten Free Coconut Pie
This impossibly easy, impossibly delicious gluten free coconut pie is a quick and beautiful dairy free crustless custard pie that's ready in about an hour.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2-2 cups flaked coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, to your taste; either amount of coconut will work)
- 2 cups milk (dairy or nondairy – coconut milk is the obvious, but not required, choice)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups granulated cane sugar (reduce to 1 1/4 cups if using sweetened coconut)
- 1/2 cup (68 grams) gfJules All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 tablespoons butter or nondairy alternative, melted (I use Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Pour coconut into a small bowl. Add milk to soak, and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
Beat eggs and sugar then add all the other ingredients slowly.
Add the soaked coconut and pour into an oiled pie plate or 4–6 ramekins or coffee cups.
This pie rises when cooking, then shrinks as it cools; therefore, use caution not to overfill the pans. I recommend leaving at least an inch clearance to allow for the pie to rise. Consequently, you may find that you have extra pie batter and need to use an additional baking pan.
Bake for 50–60 minutes (approximately 30–40 minutes for ramekins), or until the edges are lightly browned and the middle is no longer jiggly. Turn off oven and open oven door, allowing pie to cool slowly to prevent cracking.
(See how easy that was?!)
Pin it for later!
I have made this pie twice, once with egg substitute mentioned above, yuck went in the garbage. Next with silken tofu, better but not pretty. I used gluten free flour and tofu, it rose beautifully, looked great but would not firm up so I had to cook it for 2 hours. It lost it’s uniform appearance, but the flavor was great.. Just not a show piece.. Any suggestions will be appreciated… I have found that gluten free baking takes more time, much longer in the oven…
Marsha, I’m glad you liked the taste of the pie with tofu as en egg substitute, but I’m not surprised that it doesn’t hold its shape well with that substitute though. I don’t recommend this pie for those who can’t tolerate eggs because it’s fundamentally a custard base. If you really want to try it again, pehaps vegan tapioca pudding as a sub? I haven’t tried it, but it sure would taste good and you could bake it in ramekins and serve with a spoon if if doesn’t hold together completely!
I made the pie again for Thanksgiving. I drained the tofu almost dry and reduced the milk.. The result was much better and was more attractive in appearance..
Marsha – that’s great news! So glad it worked out for you. I love that recipe – I think I’m going to have to try it your way next time!
Ahh that looks so great! But it just reminds me of Creamed horns (odd but childhood memories tend to be….). Proper puff pastry with GF flour seems to be a no go zone. A bit like international shipping… Jules you need an Australian Distributor!!
Emelia – yes! an Australian distributor would be great!!! By the way, I have made gluten-free puff pastry and it is delicious — just time consuming, as with any puff pastry! I firmly believe that ANYTHING is possible gluten-free. Never give up on that!
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s just like the Bisquick Impossible Coconut Pie that I loved as a youngster! I ended up pouring it into a 9×13 inch baking dish and it only took 40 minutes. Good stuff!
Fantastic Kim! It’s such an easy recipe and turns out great no matter what the pan – a family favorite!
Hi,
Can this be cooked in regular pie pans? I do not have ramekins.
Thanks,
Teresa
T. Earp, you can absolutely bake this pie in regular pans – you’ll need 1-2 pie pans per recipe and they will need to bake longer.
This recipe sounded wonderful until I saw that it takes eggs. While I am aware that there are egg alternatives I do not find them to be very effective especially in baked goods. The end result is often heavy. The egg alternatives don’t provide the lift that real eggs do. Any suggestions?
Douglas – scan through the comments below — there are lots of egg subs discussed that might work well in this recipe!
I recently came across a pound cake recipe that called for 4 eggs and the substitute used for 4 eggs was 1 cup pureed Mori Nu silken Tofu (firm) or any other silken Tofu.
I am planning to give this a shot in this recipe, if anyone else does please do post.
I done that coconut pie.It is not impossible.It is possible.It is so delicious every one likes it.Thanks so much.
I like the way you put that, Frances!
Has anyone tried this recipe egg-free yet? Love to know if you had success. A friend suggested adding 1/2 – 1 tsp of vinegar with baking soda at the last. Anyone know if this works?
How can you make this sugar free?
Cindi – I’d love to try this with Coconut Palm Sugar! I bet using that unrefined sugar would be wonderful in this recipe!
This is especially good if you drizzle melted chocolate on it when you serve it.
Fatcat – that sounds A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
I would like to know how you get a good pie crust from your flour. I have tried several times and it always looks good and shapes good, but when I try to cut it, it is as hard as a rock. I follow your recipe in the book to a T and it is just not working. Please help!
Hi Barbara – there are some great helpful hints in my pie crust blog, video and comments to it from other readers. One mistake I see people making a lot is overcooking the crust, waiting for it to brown. If you brush on some milk before baking, that can help it brown, but overcooking the crust will definitely cause it to be too hard. Also, although I say to leave the dough sit out for 30 min before rolling, it should not be warm – if the fats have melted before rolling, then there won’t be any pockets of fat left to melt during baking and give off steam, causing the air pockets and flakiness we all want in our crust. If your dough is getting warm before rolling, or if you work it too much when rolling out, that could cause problems too. Don’t give up!!! You will have amazing crust, I just know it!
does anyone know if this can be frozen?
mine doesn’t last long enough to freeze it! but i would think it would be ok, maybe cook it a little longer initially!
it is fantastic!!!
By the way, can I freeze this coconut pie?
Yea!! I’ve been craving a coconut cream pie for three years!!!
Also used ‘your flour’ to make a B-day cake this week which came out perfect(NOT crumbly). Thank you, thank you.
Jules, this pie was so good at the Charlotte expo.
Armed with my new flour I will try this soon!
OK, I am the GF one and would love to make Coconut pie but husband hates coconut. Can I just make this and have pie like egg custard? Thanks so much for all you do!
Any suggestions to make this recipe egg free?
I’d probably go with Ener-g egg replacer for this one. Although tofu or flax, sweet potato, or banana might work nicer than you’d think to. Play around and have fun!
Good luck!
Oh, maybe even tapioca, arrowroot, or agar agar might be enough in this, but I’d personally try the the first three mentioned first.
I am also interested in finding out if there is an egg free option for this – four large eggs is alot to substitute. I have my best results with crushed flax seed and warm water but don’t know about using this for the coconut pie. Help please!
As for an egg sub for this recipe, I agree and try to stay clear of subbing for eggs in recipes that call for 3 or more eggs. I have not tried egg subs in this recipe because of that, but my first guess would be to use a combination of a couple egg replacers (as I discuss in Free for All Cooking), including tofu — sounds odd, but it will come closest to the proper consistency. I’d love to hear if anyone does get time to try this yummy recipe egg-free … please come back and share your results!!!
This sounds like a french coconut pie to me. It looks delicious.
Oh baking is so frustrating sometimes! I’ve tried to cut out dairy, but it seems to be impossible to find certain things that are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and coconut-free!
Can you do almond, oat, cashew, hemp, or sunflower? You can always google recipes for how to make the “milks”, many of which are really easy. Good luck and hang in there! Sounds like a pain, you poor thing!
I am so excited about this recipe. I wish MOM’s was open today. I’m out of Jules flour.
Whole Foods carries it too!
So really all I’m doing is mixing all the ingredients together & then baking? Too easy, but I’ll try it tomorrow for my GF Father-in-law. He loves coconut cream pie and hasn’t had one since he had to go GF. Thanks for sharing.
Yep – that’s about it! The expression, “easy as pie” must have come from somewhere! Enjoy!
I’ve tried the pie. My kids said it’s the best dessert ever. I’ve even changed the sugar to the same amount of maple syrup still works.
Ayda
Ayda – yum! What a brilliant substitution – so glad to know that change works! Thanks for posting!