Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie

Last weekend, my long lost friend Jess came to visit, and this week’s pie was the last good idea we had after a day and night full of good ideas. We saw some art, enjoyed some barrel-aged craft beer, and celebrated our Polish heritage by squeezing in a visit to Jackson Hall to listen to Yakity Sax and eat a pierogi at Pulaski Days (Spoiler Alert #1: 4oz Polish pastry coming soon). 

By the end of the night, we were feeling inspired, so obviously it was time to make a pie. Somehow, we landed on the Hoosier Sugar Cream variety, even though I had almost none of the necessary ingredients on hand. Thankfully, the local grocery store hadn’t quite closed yet, so we were able to raid their dairy section, and we were off.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when a dessert with 'cream' in its name calls for half and half, whole milk, AND heavy whipping cream, but it still felt a little strange dumping all of that dairy into a bowl. Maybe this was because the other ingredients were so minimal - sugar, spices, and a little flour.

This picture features our bowl of dry ingredients (that's a big ol' pile of sugar you're looking at), the sweet t-shirt each of us got at Jackson Hall, and my boney-witchy spider hands. Happy Halloween (and you're welcome). 

All the dairy! All the sugar!! When all of our ingredients were incorporated, this mixture went into the waiting pie shell (which was also purchased at the grocery store...we decided since we were making pie at midnight, it was okay to cheat a little on the complicated steps) and then it all went into the oven. Since we were working with such a wet batter, it took a little over an hour to bake and set properly. The final product reminded me very much of a flan in both flavor and texture, which was a fun discovery. 

Jess was in charge of photography for this project, and she managed to catch this sweet action shot. I can't believe you guys haven't met Daisy yet. Here is the 4oz Kitchen mascot in all of her cranky-old-cat glory. She's waiting patiently for our pie to bake and hoping to scam a free drink from the faucet.

After coming out of the oven and cooling overnight, we finished our masterpiece with a dusting of cinnamon and sugar, and then promptly cut into it for a little pre-brunch snack -- undoubtedly our first good idea of the morning. The filling is pretty intense in terms of sweetness and richness, so make sure you have a friend or two (or twenty) to share it with, and it's best served with something to balance out the flavor like coffee or a big glass of milk (because more dairy is always welcome). 

This recipe was a perfect way to cap off a night of riotous fun with something sweet, warm, and extremely easy to make. This was literally one of those “dump, mix, and bake” recipes. I mean, it’s not cake in a box, but it took about as much fineness, which was good for two people who may have been more focused on catching up on many months of news and planning their morning schedule around an 11am Pulaski Days Polka Mass (Spoiler Alert #2: We didn’t make it).