Photo by Michael Piazza

Some of my fondest food memories are of my Ma Blunie, my father’s mother, in her kitchen in Ozark, Alabama, calling us in for dinner on the first night of our summer stay from Rhode Island. On the dinner plate, right next to the roast chicken and greens, was a beautiful slab of coconut pie, and I would soon learn that my Ma Blunie just didn’t think it was necessary to waste another plate serving dessert. If you wanted a little taste of something sweet in your mouth, there was nothing wrong with having a bit of pie in the midst of your dinner. There was an amazing feeling of responsibility and personal agency to being given dessert without “deserving” it. The exception to that rule was when company came and everyone would be told to “save your fork, there’s pie,” and only then would it be served after dinner, not with.

That became and remains my pie shop’s motto all these years later: Save your fork—there’s pie.

Ma Blunie was kind enough to share her coconut pie with me—not quite as a recipe, but just some notes about assembling it. In order to share it and scale it for the bakery I came up with this. 

Makes 1 (9-inch) pie, serving 6–8

1 disc of Aunt Rosie’s pie dough
3 eggs
½ cup sugar
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut plus 1 tablespoon to sprinkle on top
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Roll out 1 disc of pie dough, transfer to a pie plate and trim and crimp the edges. Refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, eggs and milk until thoroughly mixed. Add 1 cup coconut and the vanilla and mix well.

Pour filling into the chilled, unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle top with additional coconut before baking.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until gently set. 

This recipe appeared in the Fall/Holiday 2020 issue as part of a larger story on Sweet and Savory Pies.