Look Out! Fancy Southern: Coconut pie

Product name: Look Out! Fancy Southern: Coconut pie
Purchase details: £1.50 for an 85g pie (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 360 per pie
Country of origin: USA 

Following on from my review of Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie a couple of days ago, now it’s the turn of the Coconut pie which was also recommended to be via A Quarter of Sweets' Twitter page. I had been less excited about this variety since, as much as I love coconut, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had coconut pie, whereas pecan pie is a firm favourite of mine. Add to that the slight disappointment over the Look Out! Pecan pie, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this product.

This Coconut pie came presented in the same style of packaging as the Pecan pie and it was only after I opened it that I realised I didn’t actually know what a coconut pie is meant to be like! Whilst the wrapper gave an ingredients list, there was no product description, so whether or not it achieved its aim, I won’t be able to say!

The pastry case was visually the same again and it was still salty with a hint of nut. This time, though, it was filled with a pale yellow substance that looked moist and slightly custard-like. The top of the pie was sticky and, whist still caramelised, was paler than the Pecan pie, and it also didn’t contain any visible pieces within the mixture. The pie felt stiff and dense to cut through and my general impression was that it looked a bit like an egg custard. This worried me slightly as, when I tried one of these as a child, I didn’t like it, although I realise my tastes have probably changed by now! I had been expecting a coconut aroma from this product but I couldn’t detect this at all – it literally just smelt of a tart.

Once again, I tried half of this pie cold first. The filling was smooth and squidgy, rather than runny, and I was pleased to discover that it contained pieces of desiccated coconut. The coconut flavour wasn’t immediately obvious but it was evident after a couple of chews. I remained unsure about exactly what the surrounding yellow substance was but I did find it wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. It did remind me slightly of condensed milk but, alas, this was not listed an ingredient.

I microwaved the second half of the pie for 10 seconds and found that this made the filling look a bit moister and also caused it to sink slightly. The pastry, again, became softer and more flexible, and the upper crusty layer also felt softer and less sticky. This time, I was pleased that there was a smell of coconut, and the texture became beautifully soft and creamy with a hint of caramel in the generally stronger flavour. The filling just seemed to melt in the mouth whilst maintaining its texture from the pieces of coconut.

Once more, this Look Out! Fancy Southern pie was far nicer warm than cold, and so my scores are based on that. If you’d told me prior to trying these pies that I would prefer the coconut one, I probably wouldn’t have believed you, but this was most definitely yummy! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10