Kentucky Sawdust Pie Recipe

If this recipe’s interesting name has you curious, you’re not alone. But rest assured, there’s no actual sawdust in sawdust pie. Instead, it might best be described as a pie that captures the best part of German chocolate cake’s coconut-pecan frosting. The old-fashioned dessert combines pecans, coconut, and graham cracker crumbs with eggs (or, more traditionally, egg whites) in a pie crust.

Put it another way, if you’ve ever had that frosting and think you could make a dessert out of it alone, great news. This pie sort of makes that happen. A Kentucky sawdust pie’s filling tastes like coconut pie, chess pie, and pecan pie all at once—and really gives German chocolate cake frosting vibes. The filling is gooey, very sweet, and totally delicious.

So who was the genius behind this incredible dessert? Patti Tullar is credited as the originator of this pie. In 1975, Patti and husband Bill opened a six-room motel, followed quickly by an ice cream parlor in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, a small town in Western Kentucky about 30 minutes from Paducah.

Over the years, their business has grown into a very unique attraction, complete with a campground, bed and breakfast, gift shops, and restaurants, called Patti’s 1880 Settlement. Sawdust Pie first hit the menu in 1977. The name came from her kids, who remarked that the finished pie looked like baked sawdust.

Recipe Tips For Sawdust Pie

Many recipes for this pie call for seven egg whites in the filling. We tested this pie with both egg white and whole eggs and found that vthey were almost indistinguishable from each other. The egg white version did taste a bit more eggy (like a rich egg custard), but four whole eggs are easier to deal with, so that’s the version we went with here. There’s no need to separate eggs or find a use for all those yolks.

• Use toasted pecans; the toasted flavor is superior. To easily (and properly) toast pecans, bake them on a parchment-lined sheet pan at 300°F for anywhere between 18 minutes (for chopped nuts) to 25 (for whole halves).
• You can make this pie a day or two in advance of when you plan to serve it; store in the fridge.
• You can store leftovers, covered in the pie plate, in the refrigerator for up to a week.
• Or store the pie in the freezer for up to two to three months. You don’t need to thaw it (though you can, if you want). From the frozen state, it’s still chewy; it doesn’t get rock-hard.
• Leave the texture of the graham crackers at a coarse crush. Very finely ground crumbs will soak up too much liquid and leave the pie less gooey and more dry.
• The banana and whipped cream garnish are from the original recipe, the way it’s served at the restaurant where it originated. You could also serve the pie warm with vanilla ice cream.
• You could try the recipe with walnuts in place of pecans.