By Kevin Williams
Oatmeal Pie is always going to be a sentimental favorite of mine. Long-timers here know that it was the first recipe that ever appeared in The Amish Cook column way back in 1991. The pie intrigued me then and it still does.
Pecans are expensive, who wants to shell out $20 for a pecan pie this holiday season? Not me. The Amish have the answer. The tried and true solution: homemade oatmeal pie.
It is delicious and tastes remarkably like a pecan pie. There are no pecans, though, in the recipe. Still, the flavor and texture are so similar to pecan pie that unwitting tasters are often fooled. You can add a sprinkling of chopped pecans or even walnuts to this recipe just to give it a hint more of a nutty flavor. The pie is quick and easy.
I remember as part of a promotional tie-in years ago the Richard's Restaurants chain in NE Indiana served some Amish Cook pie recipes. At my urging, one of the pie flavors served was "oatmeal" and Richard's did a great job with the pie. But I don't think customers ever really embraced it. I think people just thought of a bowl of steaming gruel-like oatmeal when they heard "oatmeal pie." I had contemplating changed the name to "oatmeal cookie pie", but that never got off the ground either. Anyway, the past is the past. No sense in revisiting that. But oatmeal pie is a classic Indiana Amish confection, well-liked by the Swiss Amish of Berne. Try it on your holiday menu this year, you will not be disappointed! And, by the way, I never add the walnuts...that is totally optional...
Amish Oatmeal Pie
A slice of oatmeal pie
- 8 eggs
- 3 cups brown sugar
- 1 pound margarine
- 3 cups green label Karo
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups walnut pieces (optional)
- Preheat oven to 325.
- In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, brown sugar, margarine, Karo, oats and optional walnut pieces.
- Mix until smooth consistency and pour into 4 unbaked pie shells.
- Bake for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean.
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