sugar cream pie cookoff

Andrew grew up eating his mom’s sugar cream pie, something I’d never heard of until I met him and started visiting his house in New York.

Apparently, sugar cream pie is a Midwestern thing; Andrew’s mom is from Indiana, which explains why she made these pies, and Mrs. Nye–a New York native and pie-making extraordinaire–had never heard of them before.

Anyway, I randomly ended up making Andrew’s mom’s recipe in an effort to get rid of a pre-made crust that had been sitting in our freezer for awhile now.

However, I’d ripped another sugar cream pie recipe out of Food Network magazine years ago (having recognized the name from Andrew and thinking it would be fun to try), but had not yet made.

Andrew and I LOVE to do cook-offs to determine which recipe of something we like over another, so I thought to myself, ‘Why not do a cook-off?’ Andrew was up for the idea, but I was concerned about all that leftover pie the two of us would have.  I decided I would take “cook-off slices” to our near and dear, since everyone was busy this past weekend.

Here, my friends, are the results:

Andrew’s mom’s pie:

This pie is light and has a gelatin-like consistency.  It’s make with milk, sugar and cornstarch and is super easy.  I liked the light flavor and with some fresh whipped cream, it’s awesome!

Hoosier Mama’s pie:

This pie is the recipe Hoosier Mama makes in Chicago.  As I said, I found it in Food Network a long time ago and piqued my interest.

It incorporates a thick, crunchy crust made with a touch of red wine vinegar, of all things.  I overdid the crust just a bit, but overall my tasters liked it a bit brown.  The pie itself is made with both brown and white sugars, and heavy cream instead of milk.

It has a much deeper, richer–almost ‘burned’ sugar–flavor that reminds Andrew and me of the maple syrup pie we fell in love with in Quebec City a couple falls ago.  (It does solidify; we microwaved it a bit which is why it’s a little runny above.)

Overall, I think the results favored the Hoosier Mama pie, but just barely.  And really, they turned out so different from each other (something I hadn’t anticipated), that it was almost like comparing apples to oranges.

Do your own taste test and make them both!