Sugar Cream Pie

Cream, butter, and sugar are the essential ingredients of sugar cream pie, also known as Hoosier pie because so much of it is eaten in Indiana. A favorite of the Amish who settled in Indiana, it is a product of scarcity: no fruits are required and even eggs are not needed (although they may be added) to create the characteristic fragile jiggle by which the pie is known. Farmland bec fins like sugar pie best in the spring when Jersey cows are on new, green grass and their milk is especially rich. Brown sugar or maple syrup frequently is used, vanilla extract will flavor it, and a dusting of nutmeg is common, but any further customization goes against the pie’s elemental nature.