Hi everyone!
It’s What’s Cookin’? Wednesday!
I was feeling a little nostalgic recently and suddenly developed a craving for a that pie my grandma used to make whenever I went to visit… she called it “Poor Man’s Pie”.
She would pour each of the ingredients directly into the pie shell and then let ME to do the FUN part… mix it all up… with my hands! Afterwards, we would put butter pats on top and bake it. I couldn’t wait for it to chill enough to “set up” so we could dig in… it was really good after dinner on a warm summer night.
I couldn’t remember the exact ingredients or measurements and had no idea which “safe place” I put her recipe, so I began searching the Internet to see if it was indeed an actual recipe, or just another one of her fabulous “creations”.
There were many different variations of a recipe called sugar cream pie, but one particular recipe seemed to be spot-on for the pie I fell in love with so many years ago. (It also happens to be the official pie for the State of Indiana!) I’ve made this a couple of times in the past few months, and my family LOVES it!
The main difference between this recipe and my grandma’s recipe is that her ingredients were all dumped into an unbaked pie shell, and this one uses a pre-baked shell. Obviously, that meant that hers baked a little longer, but it sure does taste exactly the way I remember! I can still hear her say, “careful now… mustn’t tear the shell” as I was blending the ingredients together… but, of course, that’s usually what ended up happening anyway 😉
Ingredients
- Single crust 9" pastry pie shell (I STILL have not been able to master the art of making my own pie shells :( )
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 cups milk (I used 2% and it came out just fine)
- 1/2 cup butter, sliced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven and bake your pie shell according to the directions on the package or your pie crust recipe. Cool on wire rack when crust is light brown.
- Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F.
- Stir sugar and cornstarch together in a large saucepan.
- Slowly stir in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.
- Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until it's thick and bubbly.
- Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla. Stir until most of the butter is melted.
- Pour mixture into pre-baked pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until pie is golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate until completely chilled. (It's best to let it sit overnight in the refrigerator, but should be ready to cut in about 4-5 hours.
Notes
If the pie "runs" when you slice it, it either didn't cook long enough, or it didn't chill long enough... but, you could always just eat it with a spoon!
This is absolutely one of the best pies I’ve ever had! Try it, and see if you like it!
Don’t forget to CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE to LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know what you think!
Enjoy…
Lynn
I also remember making this with a certain great grandma and it was good, maybe I’ll have to try this recipe.
Lol… yes, you did! Definitely try this… it may not be as much “fun” to make, but you will NOT be disappointed 😉