Old Time Quebec Sugar Pie

 

 

One pie shell (I cheat and don’t make my own. I find the store bought frozen shells quite good enough)
One cup of brown sugar - packed (but not too tightly)
One tablespoon flour
Half a pint of whipping cream minus 2 tablespoons (for the metric inclined folks, that’s exactly 200ml).
 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
I'll give you the old and the new methods. I use the old method, some use the new one. I swear the old method makes a better pie... but maybe it's just me.
Original method of preparation: dump the sugar and the flour into the pie shell. Mix the flour and sugar with your hands so that the flour is well mixed into the sugar. Dump the cream on top. Mix with your fingers, breaking any sugar clumps until the mix is uniform .
Modern way of doing it: mix the flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the cream and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Dump into pie shell.

Since this is an old-style recipe from the wood stove era, there is no specified amount of time to bake the pie. It will take between 45 and 75 minutes depending on your oven and depending on the ratio of ingredients. A pie with a little more flour than usual will take less time, one where there a bit more cream will take longer. Your baking time will vary from pie to pie.

To check if the pie is fully baked, start checking it at around 45 minutes. The pie filling will start boiling from the outside and move toward the middle. It will first boil with large bubbles which will gradually disappear to be replaced with small tight bubbles. When the entire surface is bubbling with these tight bubbles and the edge of the filling is starting to dry up, the pie is ready. A good test is to shake the pie back and forth a bit. If the center is still liquid, it needs to bake some more. When shaking produces a movement that looks like soft pudding, it’s ready. The pie I baked for this took 65 minutes.

Cool the pie completely to room temperature. The filling stays dangerously hot for a long time. Cool for at least 2-3 hours. Serve at room temperature by itself or with ice cream or whipped cream (for those with a strong liver).

This pie never lasts for very long. It has been known to disappear after a few midnight trips to the kitchen.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
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