When I first began exploring Amish settlements in my late teens, I quickly discovered the central role that food played in Amish culture (I wish I had discovered this Amish cinnamon cream pie back then!). In that sense, the Amish were not unlike the Italian lineage on my Mom's side. In Mom's Italian family - like most Amish families - food servers as a "binder" of sorts to draw and hold everyone together.
Recipes are a reflection of a culture and Amish culture, kind of like Italian culture, is especially expressed through recipes. Very early on I started collecting cookbooks and recipes from Amish settlements. My favorite Amish cookbooks are older ones (anything before 1980) and local ones. This is where you get those truly authentic, passed-down-from-my grandma's grandma recipes. You can score some interesting finds in those books....
For instance, I was flipping through a cookbook from the family of Jonas Coblentz, an Amish family from Ohio. Family cookbooks are popular pastimes among the Amish, and with newer, cheaper printing technologies they've become even more so. It's a way for a family to easily save and share their culinary heritage So I was flipping through this cookbook packed full of interesting recipes when I came across one for Pie...It follows the recipes for buttermilk pie, pumpkin pie, caramel custard, and chess pie. It looks like a pretty simple recipe so maybe that's why it's just called Pie. If anyone out there wants to try it and let us know, maybe we can even assign it a more descriptive name!:) No amounts were given for the cinnamon and vanilla. So here is the recipe for Pie as published in the Jonas Coblentz family cookbook. Well, before I get the recipe...like many recipes in Amish family cookbooks, the instructions are a bit spare. In fact, the recipe didn't even have any amounts for cinnamon and vanilla. But a teaspoon of vanilla should suffice and cinnamon, well, it's up to you, I used quite a bit to sprinkle. Feel free to adjust to your taste since we were not given an exact amount.
Rich Milk?
Another interesting feature of this recipe is its calling for "rich milk." Rich milk is a pretty outdated term. You don't see it much anymore. This is a not-as-helpful-as-I’d-hoped article about "rich milk." I think any milk will do, but whole milk is probably what I'd shoot for. Also, note in the instructions about "chill overnight." It doesn't say "refrigerate overnight", but that is what I would recommend. Most Amish, especially when this book was written, did not have refrigerators. But they would usually have cool cellars to store food and often ice chests.
Anyway, this Amish cinnamon cream pie is a really nice, creamy, flavorful pie. This would be known as a "desperation dessert", many Amish found themselves stretched very thin during the Great Depression years and other lean times, but inventive Amish bakers and cooks still found ways to soothe a sweet tooth.
If you notice, the pictured pie does not have a crust. That's up to you. I was just experimenting, because so many people are cutting calories this time of the year or axing gluten, etc. And, yes, this Amish cinnamon cream pie did work without a crust. I mean it does not cut quite as well as it would if you had a nice crust holding it together. You can make this nice no-roll Amish pie crust in mere minutes, it is one of my favorites!
Recipes like this were one way to do it, they scratched out what they could from their cabinets and the end result is a delicious pie!
🥧Amish Pie Ingredients
- 3 /4 cup sugar
- 1 /4 cup cornstarch
- 1 /2 cup margarine
- 2 1 /4 cup "rich milk"
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons cinnamon
📋Amish Pie Instructions
- Cook together sugar, milk, and cornstarch.
- When thickened, add margarine and vanilla.
- Pour into a baked pie shell.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Chill overnight.
💰More Amish Great Depression Recipes
The Great Depression and other lean times of years past definitely left an imprint on Amish cooking. Check out some of these other recipes:
A super easy supper.
Great Depression Pizza Casserole
Filling but simple!
No lemons? No problem!
An acquired taste!
🖨️Printer-Version Amish Cinnamon Cream Pie
Amish Cinnamon Cream Pie
Ingredients
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup margarine
- 2 ¼ cup rich milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Cook together sugar, milk, and cornstarch.
- . When thickened, add margarine and vanilla.
- Pourinto a baked pie shell.
- Sprinklewith cinnamon.
- Chill overnight
dynajo
reminds me of sugar cream. It was delicious. I highly suggest you try it.
Peggy Bard
How much milk?
Kevin
Oops...2 1 /4 cups "rich milk" I added that omission in, thanks Peggy. Recipe of the recipe appears as it does in the book.
Betsy
What is considered "rich milk"?
Kevin
Hi, Betsy, in this case it just means whole milk. You don't want to use skim or lowfat, whole milk with all its fat!:) - Kevin
Diane
It's like Hoosier Sugar Cream pie. It's not a custard because it doesn't have eggs.
Peggy Bard
Yes, like Hoosier Old Fashioned Cream Pie. I have found that every family in Indiana has their own family's recipe..each a little different, but delicious, just the same. Some sprinkle Nutmeg on top, some sprinkle Cinnamon. Our neighbor used to call her's "Finger Pie", because she put the ingredients in the pie shell, then stirred it with her finger!
Jill Stratman
When I read that I had to go find my recipe for "Amish Sugar Cream Pie" as it looked almost identical. It is, except that mine adds an additional 1/4 c brown sugar and the milk is 2 1/2 rather than the 2 1/4 listed here. The recipe I have has the vanilla and cinnamon as well.. 1 tsp each. It is indeed a wonderfully delicious pie. I can't quite imagine it without the brown sugar though as it gives it the slightest butterscotch flavor that is just soooo good. I used to make this for my Mother when she came to visit. Needless to say, we both looked forward to her visits!
Kevin
Well, I think I know what we can call this recipe now:) Glad you found the new site, I was going to email you today actually to tell you about it, but you beat me to it!
Jill Stratman
I did and I love it!! I knew it was supposed to be up around this time, but of course I didn't remember that on my own. I saw a post on my FB that made reminded me lol
Nancy LaLiberte
If you're in Indiana, sometimes it's called Old Fashioned Cream Pie, and sometimes Sugar Cream Pie. If you like good, simple food, order a slice, and you'll never forget the taste. To me, it's Heaven On a Pie Plate. In Middlebury, try it at The Village Inn.
June Cox
My grandmother always had "Old Fashion Cream Pie" ready for us in her cupboard. It was made with both brown and white sugar, cream and milk , a little flour and dotted with butter and cinnamon ( or nutmeg ). My grandmother was supposedly Pennsylvania Dutch and many dishes were called by German sounding names. Her family migrated to northern Indiana from Virginia, so I don't know if that computes. Were there Amish or Mennonites in Virginia? My great grandparents left the South prior to the Civil War and I know my great Uncle was part of the Underground Railroad in Indiana.
Kevin
June, I think what you are saying makes historical sense. There were for a time many Amish and Mennonites in the Shenendoah Valley (still are), communities today are near Dayton and Stuart's Draft and some still have close ties to northern Indiana, so makes sense to me as is the affection for cream pie...in fact, what you are saying is interesting...Indiana is sort of assumed to be the birthplace of sugar cream pie, but some accounts have it being brought to the state by Amish and Mennonites from the east
Bunny Starkey
This recipe, with the exception of changing the cornstarch to flour, is the same recipe my mother would fix for the holidays. She called it poorman's pie, supposedly named after a Mrs. Poorman, who was Pennsylvania Dutch. I think she may have gotten it from my paternal grandmother, who was Pa. German, but not Amish Mom also used leftover piecrust and made little tarts for us. No recipe. She threw the flour in the bottom of the pie crust, added the milk and sugar, then topped it with butter chunks and cinnamon. It tastes wonderful hot as well as cold, with that custardy like texture. I learned to make it the same way so it's nice to see an actual recipe given.
Kevin Williams
Thanks for sharing that, Bunny...an Amish version of the pie you are describing is a "Poor man's bread pie", basically a pie crust filled with crumbled bread, milk, and cinnamon...all of these old Great Depression desserts are good!