Angel Cream Pie…Another Amish Memory

I grew up in the 1950’s on a farm surrounded by Amish neighbors. And one thing I remember was the way my “English” Mom and those Amish women learned about each other. It was by sharing recipes like this Amish Angel Cream Pie. The recipe was given to our family after I tasted it at the home of one of my Amish schoolmates at this country school in rural Iowa. (The Amish girls pictured below were some of my friends way back then…)

I thought you might enjoy seeing the actual recipe card, written in pencil, so many many years ago.

Recently I found the card in a file with many old recipes belonging to Mom…and I decided to recreate it as best I could since the directions and ingredients are a little unclear to me. (I was unsure about 1 cup thin cream and one cup milk so I used all Half & Half for the dairy component.) And notice there is no oven temperature or baking times listed. Women in those days were simply supposed to KNOW those things!

Here are the simple ingredients…

First the dry ingredients…I mixed the flour and sugar in a bowl…

and I added the salt.

I measured the Half and Half into a measuring cup…

Then I poured it into a saucepan to heat slightly… (I’m not sure why I didn’t just put it into the microwave for a minute instead…one less pot to wash!)

Next I poured the warm Half and Half into the dry ingredients and I added the vanilla.

In a separate bowl I beat the egg whites into stiff peaks and I folded that mixture into the other ingredients…and I poured the whole mixture into the unbaked pie shell.

Since the recipe card didn’t list a baking temperature or time, I had to guess. So I baked the pie at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. It was still pretty “jiggly” but it was quite browned on top so I took my chances and removed it from the oven. And the results of my Amish Angel Cream Pie baking experiment?

I think I should have incorporated the egg whites more evenly to make a smoother texture. After all, it’s been more than 50 years since I’ve seen one of these pies…so cut me some slack…OK?(I think I’ll make a trip back to visit one of my Amish friends from my childhood and ask her how An Angel Cream Pie is SUPPOSED to look.)

After I finished baking the pie, I decided to check an awesome blog called Amish365. It’s written by my friend Kevin Williams. (He writes about Amish settlements all over the country…and beyond.)

And there it was…nearly the same recipe provided by another Amish cook. (Except HER recipe calls for cream-not half and half.) But she thoughtfully included baking time and oven temp directions! So here is her recipe for baking an Amish Angel Cream Pie .

I haven’t sampled my pie as of this moment, but regardless of my success or failure, I’m glad I took a chance and recreated this almost-lost recipe from my childhood. And I rekindled fond memories of eating pie with my Amish friends from that country school so long ago.