Impossible Pie is somewhat of a staple in our house. It costs little for us to make as the eggs are free here with the chooks back on the lay so it’s just the extra ingredients we need to purchase. However, there’s a variation in the recipe I’ve always wanted to make but never remembered at the right time. That is, until the other day. 🙂
I don’t remember if my Mum ever actually made a quiche when we were growing up. We had little money to spare so buying flaky pastry was a luxury I don’t remember through my teen years. We did however eat what I thought of (and still DO think of) as quiche probably at least once a fortnight. Mum made impossible pie which is basically quiche ingredients with some self-raising flour mixed in for a self-creating base. Easy as Impossible Pie. 😉
The recipe was given to me upon my wedding (although I had been out of home for years before then) and with kids and eggs in generous supply it has been cooked so often I have it memorised now. 🙂
I’m not sure if it is a recipe from the Barmedman Cookbook or the Ardlethan one, both books, printed I would think in the mid 70’s and being popular in my mum’s kitchen as she grew up in Ariah Park. The recipe for Impossible Quiche is by A. Marshall.
3 eggs, beaten 1½ cups milk
½ cup S.R.flour 1 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup grated cheese 1 cup chopped ham or bacon
1 chopped onion Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste
I have (of course) made a few changes to the recipe, usually omitting the onion and always doubling the eggs. I’m also generous with butter added and I have used rye flour to great effect. 😀 I will continue to experiment with flours and I hope buckwheat will work which will make it gluten-free and also a flour I can easily grow at home. 🙂
Mini pies in ramekins
Mix the first 4 ingredients (above the line) together and make sure it’s lump free. Add the remaining ingredients and pour into a pie plate, baking for 45 or so minutes in a moderate oven until cooked. You can sprinkle cheese on top, thin slices of tomato, whatever you like really. You can also add many other savoury ingredients too. Asparagus, olives, potato cubes, leftover chicken, beef or lamb, whatever you fancy really. 🙂 Nice and versatile.
However the twist to the recipe that has always intrigued me is that you can make it sweet. Yep, sweet quiche! 😀
My serve for dinner
The recipe reads: For sweet quiche – 1½ cups cooked or an apple slices, sugar to taste. Sprinkle with coconut.
Again, this could not be made without a good old tweak or two. 😉 I added a home bottled jar of apple puree, a small jar of home bottled cherries in rapadura syrup and I omitted the sugar as the rapadura should sweeten it enough. I sprinkled my homemade coconut flour on top and baked it as per the recipe. It was DELICIOUS! The cherries were simply divine and the eggs, although not overly sweet, were quite custard-like. It was a lovely meal and one I will make again, either as a dessert or as a meal in itself. 🙂
Look at that cherry!
I like the sweet recipe mainly though as it is a recipe I can grow almost all of the ingredients here on my little farmlet. I have a goat for the milk and butter, apple and cherry trees which will hopefully start to bear fruit in a few years time, eggs from the chickens and although I doubt I can grow coconut palms here I know the recipe will be just fine without the light sprinkling on top. For the savoury version I can grow the vegetables here and we often have leftover chicken meat from our birds too as we can’t eat an entire bird in a sitting. Cheese too will hopefully come in the future. The flour at this stage is the only ingredient I am unsure about being able to grow. I am sure I could grow wheat but with a wheat intolerance I shouldn’t be eating it anyway. Buckwheat, as mentioned, is on my experimental radar.
Oh, and it’s an easy recipe for kids to cook too. Jasper cooked most of dinner tonight. I helped with the flour and putting it into and pulling it out of the oven and little else. 😀 Give it a try. If a 5 year old can cook it, anyone can! 😀
Savoury Impossible Pie chef extraordinaire.
Rabid Little Hippy 
Love the hat and apron Jaz. How cute. Ive never tried impossible pie. I make lots of quiches and frittata. I’ll give it a go. Trust you to make your own cocunut flour. Thermie anyone?
Lol. I got the idea to make coconut flour from Narf who has no thermy! Any food processor will do the job but yes, I did use Thermy firstly to make the coconut milk from dessicated coconut and water and then to grind up the dehydrated coconut meal leftover from the milk. 🙂
Do give it a try. It is really very easy. Mix together, bung in the oven and then enjoy. 🙂 Better yet, come up and Jas can make us one for lunch. 😀
I used to make this years ago when my kids were young, have never tried a sweet one though, looks yum!
It wasn’t overly sweet but I did omit the sugar, sticking instead with the rapadura syrup around the cherries. It probably needed a little more sweetness to be honest but it was still very tasty. It would work with sultanas or lots or little fruit. I’d bake it again for sure. 🙂
Impossible Pie is just so easy to make isn’t it. And so easy to grow everything needed too. 🙂
I just made this for dinner..it was really good !! I make quiches often but this tastes just as good and I don’t need fresh cream or pastry in the kitchen. Thanks for posting!
I’m gad it worked for you Rita. It’s a really easy recipe and relatively good as a last minute one too (aside from the 45 minutes to cook it). Did you make the sweet or the savoury version?