The Rockin' K's Texas Hill Country Coconut Pie Tour

^ From Bum Doodler's Cafe in Boerne.

Adventure starts when you leave the beaten path.  Chef Kitty knows that, it's why she drove two days from southern Florida to join me in a quest for the best coconut pie in the Texas Hill Country.

<---Chef Kitty leaving the Blanco Bowling Alley, where the pie we tasted was still warm from the oven.


Three days, ~ 650 miles, 12 small Texas towns, 20+ pieces of pie and 3 new pounds on my scale.

Our rules were few: **Local places only.  **Pies made from scratch.   **Every piece photographed, described and rated on our 1-5 scale (5 being a perfect score, and yes, there were 5's).  Remains were carted home in a cooler for later comparison.  I know, what were we thinking?  That twenty pieces of pie weren't enough and we'd want to taste them all again???  My refrigerator is still filled with little styrofoam boxes...

As with any journey, there were a few unexpected destinations. We got lost in Lampasas when the GPS sent us to the backside of a pasture instead of the Yumm Factory, an old-fashioned cash-only diner. Turned out Yumm is on a major road, not hard to find if you're using a map instead of GPS.

Our Yumm lunch of smoked-on-site brisket and home-made Green Chile Chicken Stew, yes we splurged on onion rings.

And in spite of our mission--coconut pie--we tasted every Buttermilk Pie we found, on the theory that a person might only pass that way once.

Silver K Cafe's Buttermilk Pie in Johnson City, made from our server's great-grandmother's recipe.

We also learned about  segmentation of  the coconut pie genre: meringue, cream and a much-loved variation closest to chess pie.  Texans hold distinct opinions about which is best but Kitty and I are ecumenical, we rated them all on the 1-5 scale.

 

We deviated in Glen Rose for to-die-for German Chocolate Pie at Riverhouse Grill. It got a "5" on the scale, as did the nearby Pie Peddlers Very Berry Pie, with a pucker-up-honey-you'll-love-this sweet, tart, succulent filling of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and a bit of rhubarb wrapped in a tender flaky crust.

By the end, we'd tasted so many good pies we knew that folks all over the Texas Hill Country can find good pie not far from home.

But if I ever want to drive for coconut pie again, I'll point my headlights toward Fredericksburg Pie Company's creamy coconutty dream of a flaky-crusted tender-meringued Coconut Meringue Pie, a guaranteed 5+, and count myself lucky to live just a few hours away.



Coconut Meringue and Cream pies at Fredericksburg Pie Company.

Copyright 2009-2011 Kathleen Scott, for Hill Country Mysteries. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.