The latest in pie news: The Indiana Senate recently passed a bill to appoint sugar cream pie as the state's official pie. If the bill also passes the House, the pie will be officially named Hoosier Pie, and Indiana will become only the third state to have an official pie (joining Vermont with apple pie and Florida with Key Lime).
In honor of Indiana, I thought it would be fitting to spend some time this week on cream pies. Sugar cream pie is an excellent beginners' cream pie because you do not need to heat it before baking it. There are many recipes out there which are all very similar. Here's one from All Recipes, a great source for...well, all recipes:
1 1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C flour
1 C heavy whipping cream
3/4 C whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (you can use cinnamon instead)
1/4 C butter, chilled and diced
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (225 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, flour, and cream. Add milk and vanilla extract, and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Pour into pastry shell. Sprinkle top with nutmeg and dot evenly with small chunks of butter.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake an additional 45 minutes.
Some people actually mix the ingredients in the pie shell, mixing the dry ingredients together in the bottom of the pie shell first and then pouring the wet ingredients (already mixed together) over the dry ingredients and stirring gently with a couple of fingers until it's mixed. Also, if the pie browns too quickly before it's done (you can tell it's done when the middle does not jiggle when you move the pie plate), you can put aluminum foil over it. Everyone has his or her own way of doing it, so experiment and find out what works best for you. Let me know how it goes!
Note that since you are cooking this pie so long, using an unbaked pie shell is best. You can make the pie crust just as you normally would, just without baking it first.
Cream pies tend to be just a bit more finnicky than fruit pies, particularly in getting them to set right. But they are well worth it in taste! Check back next week to learn to make chocolate and banana cream pies, which require heating first. Happy baking!
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I think every state should have an official pie.
ReplyDeleteThat's my kind of pie. I'm a little scared of banana cream pie ever since I ate my very first REAL one. You see, I had been happily living my life beleiveing that while not exactly authentic, Cool Whip was good enough. Then I got my face around a real cream pie and ate so much my gut was cramping all night long. But it was a good kind of pain!
ReplyDeleteOuch! I use Cool Whip on some pies, but like to make my own merengue for cream pies. It can be quite a hit to the stomach!
ReplyDeleteAnd I vote lemon merenge for Arkansas's state pie!
A hand chopper?! I had no idea! I'll have to invent some holiday and ask for it as a present... New Cook Day?
ReplyDeleteIt's on my "list" to make my first on-my-own, from-scratch pie soon... I am so glad you posted how to do the crust :) Maybe if it's good I'll send it to NC's senate-- all states should have an official pie!!!