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TL;DR (Quick-Answer Box)
- What it is: A classic, custard-style Indiana pie with a rich, caramelized filling made from simple ingredients like cream, brown sugar, and vanilla, baked in a flaky crust.
- Why you’ll love it: It’s an incredibly easy, pantry-friendly dessert with a velvety texture and deep caramel-vanilla flavor, perfect for holidays or a quick sweet fix.
- How to make it: Whisk the sugars, flour, and salt, then gently stir in cream and vanilla. Pour into a blind-baked pie shell, bake until large bubbles cover the surface (approximately 40-45 minutes total), cool, and chill until set (at least 4 hours).
Featured Review
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I make this pie every other month or so as it is INCREDIBLY easy and makes me look like a kitchen master.
My husband’s family is from Indiana, and so they always bought sugar cream pies from the grocery-store bakery for occasions, but I was told that this version is even better than they remember! I have the recipe memorized at this point but I keep it up for reference whenever I make it. FYI, I make this with a graham cracker crust because they are easy to keep on hand in the pantry, and we literally cannot get enough sugar in our household. Thanks again!
Michelle
Jump To
The recipe for Hoosier sugar cream pie traveled across the prairie in covered wagons with the earliest settlers of the Indiana Territories. According to pie lore, it was a great favorite of pioneering farm wives who, to avoid washing utensils or a bowl, would throw the few staple ingredients in an unbaked pie shell and mix with their fingers before rushing back to their work in the fields.
At Hoosier Mama, we prebake the pie shell and use utensils, but the basic recipe—cream and sugar thickened with a little flour—remains unchanged. The flavor is wonderful—somewhere between crème brulée and melted caramel ice cream, depending on the exact recipe. Recipes are closely guarded and passed down from generation to generation, with each family claiming its recipe is best. Our recipe, somewhat controversially, calls for both white and brown sugar.—Paula Haney
David Says
Talk about the sum being exponentially greater than the sum of its parts. This pie is quite, quite similar to the much-ballyhooed pie sold by the much, much, much more ballyhooed Momofuku Milk Bar—part of the David Chang kingdom—in New York City. Seriously, folks. You have got to taste this pie. One bite and you’ll understand the lure.
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Write a Review
If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
Featured Review
This pie is indeed super tasty, and the filling has a very nice caramely flavor as if I was eating a vanilla fudge but in a very soft version. Some of my guests said it was like eating a pecan-less pecan pie.
Regine
Sugar Cream Pie
Ingredients
- 1 single-crust All-Butter Pie Crust, blind baked
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Pinch kosher salt
- 2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC).
- Place the pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet. Set aside.
- Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix with a whisk or your hands to break up any clumps and to combine ingredients.
- Gently stir in the heavy cream with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not overmix. (Whipping the cream will prevent the pie from setting.) Stir in the vanilla extract or paste.
- Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the pie halfway and bake for 20 to 25 more minutes, until large bubbles cover the surface. The pie will not appear to be set when it comes out of the oven.
- Let the pie cool to room temperature.
- Place the pie in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before slicing and serving. (The baked pie can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. Some folksy like to throw leftover Sugar Cream Pie slices, individually wrapped, in the freezer and snack on them frozen.)
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Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Did you know only 68% of the recipes we test make it onto the site? This recipe survived our rigorous blind testing process by multiple home cooks. It earned the Leite’s Culinaria stamp of approval—and the testers’ reviews below prove it.
You definitely don’t have to be a Hoosier to enjoy this pie. Super easy to make—your favorite baked pie crust, cream, and sugar.
The baking was the longest part of the recipe. I chilled the baked pie overnight and served it for dessert the next day. The slices were easy to get out of the pie pan, which was a nice change from leaving half the crust in the pan. I was half (maybe 3/4) expecting the filling to be very sweet.
Not only was it not overly sweet, but it had a nice caramel flavor from the brown sugar and long baking time. The filling itself wasn’t rigid but soft and it didn’t weep or flow when cut. The crust was flaky and rigid, which gave a nice crunchy contrast to the soft filling. I think the confectioners’ sugar dusting was just to gild the lily, so to speak. A dollop of unsweetened whipped cream might be good with the pie also. But this pie can definitely stand on its own.
This is a very unique pie. The flavor and texture are reminiscent of a combination of crème brulee and chess pie. It’s so creamy yet sweet.
I followed the directions and didn’t whisk the cream and sugars for very long—it was about 30 seconds, just long enough to combine all the ingredients, but that was all. I was concerned the filling would come out grainy, but the end result had a light yet creamy feel. The pie emerged from the oven with what looked like a layer of clear butter on the surface. It was a bit disconcerting. Once my pie cooled to room temperature, I placed it in the refrigerator overnight and it was completely set when we were ready for dessert. The baking time was spot-on and the recipe was easy to follow.
This one will make it to my dessert table again.
This was the perfect combination of taste and ease. The ingredients come together in absolutely no time. The texture was smooth and the flavor was great.
I followed the instructions and didn’t whip the mixture; instead, I gently stirred in the cream. The baking time was just right for my pie. Actually, the pie set up a little sooner than 4 hours.
I’d make this pie again.
Just finished baking this amazing pie for Thanksgiving. One question, why blind bake the pie crust? I had to cover the edges while it was baking with the filling.
Hello, Susan. Any custard pie, nut pie, etc., all of which have a very liquid filling, need to be blind baked, otherwise the bottom crust will be soggy. When you make this again, and I know it’s a “when” and not an “if,” cover the edge of the pie with foil strips or this handy dandy pie shield, which is what i use when my crusts start getting too dark.
Definitely a “when!” This was the favorite of all the Thanksgiving desserts!
Woohoo, Susan! Love to hear that! Many, many thanks for letting us know! (It’s just crazy good, right?!)
Being a Hoosier, I can safely say that any Sugar Cream Pie is worth eating, but I have NEVER had one with brown sugar … I sense an experiment coming on! However, someone may need to roll me in to work tomorrow.
Hah! The author cops to this blasphemy in her note above the recipe, Michael. And we gotta say, we haven’t had the real deal from Hoosier Land, but we are squarely in favor of this version. Really curious to hear what you think!
Ooh! This is very like a Mennonite recipe I got years ago, but that uses canned milk (plain evaporated) rather than cream. I use it as a base for an apple tart sort of thing, using only abut half the filing, with apple wedges sprinkled with cinnamon and ground coriander set on top of the filling before baking. They sink in a bit, and it makes a nice slightly rustic dessert for after a simple meal.
I do like cream, though. 😉 I may have to give this version a try.
Nice! And who’s to say, ruthie, that you can’t serve this with a nice apple compote of sorts using your spices on the side?
Too sweet and heavy for me as a whole pie. The half filing with apples is my antidote…. 😉
I wonder if it would set up if you used buttermilk. There’s buttermilk pie, right?
Ah, gotcha, ruthie. Makes perfect sense. And yes, what you suggest is essentially buttermilk pie, at least in theory. Although I wonder if the proportions of the ingredients would be the same due to the different viscosity and acidity of the buttermilk compared to milk. I just checked, and this cookbook—which is brilliant, by the way—uses different proportions of the basic ingredients and also sneaks some lemon juice and nutmeg into the filling. It also uses a different technique for combining the ingredients. In short, I’d suggest you seek out a buttermilk pie recipe. If we may be so bold, we’d suggest you splurge and get yourself this book. We’re over the moon for it.