This poor man’s pie, also called milk pie, flapper pie (a Canadian classic often topped with a meringue) or make-do pie dates back to the 1920s. It contains ingredients that were affordable of the time — only milk, sugar, flour and vanilla.
The custard is sweet and took us nearly a month of saving our sugar rations to be able to make this pie! What I love about it is that it does not require eggs like most custards do. It has such a lovely flavor that I will make this my go-to custard for pies! It’s simple yet delicious!
It’s quite sweet on its own but once cooked in the pie crust, it loses a lot of that harsh sweetness — baking it in the oven definitely helps!
Let’s get started!
Toss sugar and flour into a pot.
Add vanilla and half the milk.
Whisk well. Add remaining milk and whisk until combined.
While this cooks, put crust in the oven. Bake at 425F for 12 minutes. The leftover crust pieces I brushed with milk and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked it with the crust. You just need a single pie crust for this. We are using the remaining crust we had left from mock apple pie .
Meanwhile, keep whisking custard. Bring to a boil.
Once boiling, cook until thickened, about 3 to 4 minutes., stirring constantly.
Remove crust from oven. Unfortunately the crust shrunk and got a bit over cooked. Next time, I’ll cook the crust a few minutes less, about 8 minutes instead. Half way through, the crust was still good. I didn’t think to check the crust when I was mixing the custard! Error on my part!! <<<standing here grinning, looking around, hoping no one notices>>>
Pour custard into pie crust. Since the crust shrunk, I couldn’t quite fit all of the custard! I placed the crust on the cookie sheet in case the pie runs over.
Sprinkle with nutmeg. I’m using cinnamon sugar instead.
Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes or until set. Let cool at least 2 hours before slicing.
I really filled the pie to use as much custard as I could so it ran over everywhere! I should have used a deep pie dish! It may look ugly, but the custard is amazing!
I poured the remaining custard in a bowl to eat later and it thickened as it cooled. It is DELICIOUS!! So good!
I carefully removed the pie from the pie plate and sliced the pie up.
You definitely do not need a huge piece of this pie! A little is quite enough.
Poorman Pie or Milk Pie
1 single-crust pie shell
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cups sugar — I used 1-1/4 cups
1 tbsp vanilla
Nutmeg for garnish – we used cinnamon sugar
Toss sugar and flour into a pot. Add vanilla and half the milk. Whisk well. Add remaining milk and whisk until combined. While this cooks, put crust in the oven. Bake at 425F for 12 minutes. Remove the crust if it begins to brown. Pour custard into crust. Sprinkle with nutmeg. I’m using cinnamon sugar instead. Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes or until set. Let cool at least 2 hours before slicing. Refrigerate leftovers.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours