A recipe by Ulmer Lee "Birdie" Wood Loyd (1890 TX - 1980 NM)

3 cups cooked pinto beans (see Notes)
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (see Notes)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla ( 1/4 teaspoon if you use double strength)
pinch of salt
pie crust

Pre heat oven to 450 degrees F. Drain beans and mash beans with a fork (the taste is not the same if you use a blender). Lightly beat eggs and blend with the beans. Add milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt and blend. Pour mixture into the crust and bake at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 300 degrees F and bake 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (be careful to not over cook as it will be dry). This makes a nice full 9-inch deep crust pie. You can use the store bought crust but the best (according to Jim Windsor) is the heavier and thicker home made crust.

Notes:
About the beans: The pie is best if the beans are cooked with little or no salt or other seasoning. One and one half cups of dry beans will produce about 3 cups of cooked beans.

About the milk: Evaporated milk can be substituted if desired; one cup undiluted (one can) makes a creamier pie filling.

Other variations are possible if wanted but to my taste the original is the only way. Substitution of 1/2 cup brown sugar for 1/4 cup white sugar will give it a light maple flavor. Addition of 1-tsp. cinnamon, 1/2-tsp. nutmeg, and 1/2-tsp. allspice gives it a nice spicy taste. As Jim says: "It’s still best Mama’s way."

The History of Bean Pie in the Wood/Lloyd Family

by Jim and June Windsor

"The story that I was told is that not long after moving to the ranch in Western NM Birdie and family were invited to a pot luck supper-dance party and she was asked to bring a desert of some sort. Since they hadn’t been there long there wasn’t a large stash of supplies on hand and no car to run down to the corner market so she was faced with the challenge of coming up with something. She had a pot of beans on the stove and some eggs so she set to trying to make a ’silk purse out of a sows ear.’ From that came her bean pie which became a favorite of the area. It was the requested offering for most future potlucks.

I have since learned that beans have been used to make pies all over. I don’t know of any other pie that uses pintos, however. There was a bakery in Berkley that made them out of the white navy beans and I have found, via the Internet, other recipes for bean pie. Mama’s still puts them all to shame.