Week 25: Bean Pie

Okay, my boyfriend has been bugging me to make a bean pie, how hillbilly is that!? So we decided to make one this week. It sure sounded strange and I never considered beans as a dessert item, but I know a lot of Asian foods use bean paste in desserts, so I figured it might be kinda similar. And, I was not too far off. As crazy as it sounds, this is a pretty good tasting pie. The beans are sweet, due to all the sugar, and the pie comes out a bit like a pecan pie but a little more custardy. My guess, this was an inexpensive way to make a pie since pecans are a bit pricey.

So I have a little confession to make. I am not really very good a reading recipes. I kinda look over them and usually read them, but not in super detail all the time. I once made these beautiful lemon poppy-seed muffins, I was so excited, they were gorgeous and when I bit into them...I had forgotten the sugar! They were like a biscuit, bland and just down right disappointing. I thought I was doing pretty well with this pie until it was in the oven and almost done, with a beautiful golden brown crust and I began to re-read the ingredients and realized, oops...forgot the butter. Well, it actually turned out fine. I am sure it would have been richer and maybe more fluffy, but the taste of the pie is great. So, the moral of the story is, do the best you can and slow down a little to stop and smell the roses and read the recipe all the way through at lease twice. Oh, and I didn’t even realize that the pie crust was supposed to be cooked & cooled before putting in the custardy mix until I was doing this write up. Oops, again! Oh well, still it turned out fine. Okay, I'm a hillbilly.

We have been using pre-made pie crusts, since I got them on sale for $0.25 for 2 pie crusts! I don’t think you can even make pie crust for that, well maybe, but still pretty cheap. This pie has a really wonderful taste with all the spices, so enjoy a great dessert that is definitely hillbilly! Enjoy!

Bean Pie

• 2 cups Great Northern Beans (2, 15-oz cans), drained. (Dry is fine too, just soak them!)


• 3 large eggs


• 1 1/4 cup sugar


• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (forgot this!)


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/3 cup evaporated milk


• 1 pie crust, 9-inch, baked, cooled (um, forgot to bake this too)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I guess if you read directions, you were suppose to bake the pie crust, not sure how long, but I just put my mix in a chilled pie crust and it all worked out fine.
Step 2: Mash drained beans. The recipe said to use an electric mixer, but I could not get that to work, so I took a potato masher and got them as mashed as possible.
Step 3: Now I used my electric mixer and added the following until blended: eggs, sugar, butter (enough already), vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, combine the baking power and evaporated milk.
Step 5: Add milk to the bean mixture and blend with mixer.
Step 6: Pour into pie shell and bake for 50 minutes or until set.

Serving size: 8
Calories: 383 per serving, 332 per serving (without butter)

Recipe credit to: Southern Food
http://southernfood.about.com/od/beansandblackeyedpeas/r/blbb687.htm