On the Hoosier Pie Trail: Sugar Cream Pies

I am back on the Hoosier Pie Trail, this time in search of sugar cream pies. A pie pal and I drove part of the Hoosier Pie Trail to Winchester, Indiana to seek out the Sugar Cream Pie mecca, Mrs. Wick’s Restaurant and Pie Shop. We had a delightful lunch and marveled at the post-covid, pre-inflation prices ($2.30 per slice of pie). I, of course, had the sugar cream pie.

Wick’s pie business started when Duane Wichersham opened a restaurant in downtown Winchester featuring his grandmother’s pie recipes. The Sugar Cream Pie was so popular that he was soon making and selling 300 pies a day. In 1961, Mr. Wick built a factory that featured a nitrogen freezing process that allowed the pies to be shipped across the United States. Check the freezer section of your favorite grocery store and you will likely find a Wick’s pie! Currently, the factory makes 10,000 pies and 30,000 pie shells in one 8-hour shift. Wick’s follows a traditional approach to making pies using small-batch mixers and a dough-rolling process that produces a flaky crust. “Trust the crust” as Mr. Wick likes to say or “Try the pie” as Mrs. Wick says.

A few weeks later, I had another Sugar Cream Pie. This one was from My Sugar Pie in Zionsville, Indiana, another stop on the Hoosier Pie Trail. This pie place provides pies to restaurants in the area. At the restaurant, where I was celebrating my birthday, my sister made sure they had a Sugar Cream Pie on hand to surprise me at the end of the meal.

People: A friend and a sister who made stops with me along the Hoosier Pie Trail to eat sugar cream pies.

Places: Mrs. Wick’s https://wickspies.com and My Sugar Pie https://www.mysugarpie.com/

Pies: Sugar Cream. Two sugar cream pies in one month! Mrs. Wick’s pie lives up to its reputation. The pie was creamy, yet light, and perfectly caramelized. Sugar Cream Pie is the Indiana State Pie, so it was only fitting when the trend at the Fair was to deep-fry everything, even Mrs. Wick’s Sugar Cream Pie was deep fried. The pie from My Sugar Pie also had the expected creaminess. The restaurant added its own touches of pineapple chunks to provide a contrast to the sugary pie and served chocolate ice cream on the side. I have attempted to make a traditional Sugar Cream Pie, but my technique needs improvement when adding the nutmeg and flame to make the top “crusty.”