Old Fashioned Sugar Cream Pie Mrs. D. Falldorf. Salem's Favorite Recipes

Attempt # 1: Utter disaster.

Here is the recipe.
1 c sugar
scant 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 pt cream
1 tsp vanilla
unbaked 9 inch pie shell
cinnamon or nutmeg
1 tbs butter

Sift together flour and sugar and salt. stir in one cup of cream to make a paste. stir paste until very smooth and then add remaining cream. beat lightly. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg, pour into unbaked pie shell and dot the top with butter. Bake in a very hot (400 degrees) oven for 15-20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 and bake for an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour. Filling must boil all over in little heat bubbles. If filling begins to boil out of the pie, reduce heat slightly and work the filling down with a fork. Pie is done when shaky, but not runny.

I started by making my standard pie crust that I always use ( 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 stick room temp salted butter, 1 egg yolk and enough water to make dough come together. I make it in the mixer with the paddle attachment and I don't subscribe to all that "butter and water must be ice cold" nonsense. This crust turns out perfect every time.)

The filling on the other hand is a different story altogether. To Mrs. Falldorf's credit I did substitute the cream with evaporated milk, which could have been the root of my problems. after the 15, and then 20 minutes at the high heat, my pie never boiled... But I kept following the instructions hoping that it would boil at the lower temperature. after 40 minutes at the lower temperature, no boiling had occurred yet, so i took the reverse of the advice for "if the pie boils over, lower the temp". The pie hadn't boiled so I raised the temp to 375.

After 20 minutes it finally started to boil... but the bottom of the pie had set while the top was still very much pure liquid... no signs of thickening yet.

Finally after an addition 35 minutes at 375 the pie was jiggly (still kinda runny) so i took it out. It was, to say the least, obnoxiously sweet and the bottom of the filling was almost as stiff as the pie crust while the top was very runny still. It was not pretty, and the crimpings were nearly burnt.


I'll attempt this pie again when I have actual cream and see if the results are different. But this is definitely *not* the pie I remember Aunt Nancy making.

So next time:
-No substitutions
-Try not to deviate from the recipe, even if it doesn't seem like it's working
-Keep in mind, some of these recipes were created when ovens were very different from what they are now.