Helen’s Cream Pie with Fresh Blueberries
The recipe is hers. The blueberries are mine. Some things arrive exactly when they’re ready.
Jennifer Ann Blair writes. Food, wine, a German Shepherd named Archie, and whatever the day brings.
No apron. That’s what I remember first.
Great-grandmother Helen Wissel Carnes cooked in her everyday clothes, in a kitchen so small you couldn’t turn around if two people were standing in it. I was somewhere between seven and ten years old. She was in her late seventies. The counter was tiny. The stove was close. She smiled. Patient, calm. She directed me to do a few small things with care.
She was born in 1896. Her family had come from Bavaria in the early 1800s, moved through Pennsylvania, through Ohio, and finally settled in Indiana. She lived through Prohibition, the Depression, and two wars. She cooked through all of it. For her children in the 1920s, for her grandchildren after that, for great-grandchildren like me, in a kitchen that never seemed to get any bigger.
She didn’t need an apron because cooking wasn’t something she put on. It was just what she did. Quietly. And if you wanted to help, you could.
She died at 83. The recipe box went to my Aunt Kathy.
I’ve been thinking about Helen lately. About the black book, written in fancy serif, where her recipes live. About the note at the top of this one: Mary Jane recipe. Mary Jane was her daughter. My grandmother. Which means this recipe moved between them, mother to daughter, daughter’s name written in her mother’s hand, the way these things travel.
I could make any pie. But I keep coming back to this one. Old Fashioned Cream Pie. Six ingredients, a technique so simple it almost sounds wrong. You spread the dry mixture in an unbaked shell. You pour the cream and milk over it. You trust the oven.
What I didn’t know when I started was that Helen’s recipe is almost certainly her family’s version of Sugar Cream Pie — the official state pie of Indiana, a Hoosier staple for generations. Of course it is. The ingredients are different from the standard version, the method distinctly hers, but the spirit is the same. A humble, honest pie, made from what was always in the pantry, baked until it set. She didn’t need to call it anything special. It was just what she made.
Helen would have made her cream pie in the winter or for a holiday. I’m making it in April, for the blueberries I’m adding, two months ahead of her blueberry season, because California runs on a different clock. The San Joaquin Valley, a few hours north of here, starts its blueberry harvest now and carries it through June. Half of California’s agricultural output comes from that valley. The blueberries in my April market didn’t come from my backyard. They came from one of the most productive farming regions on earth, running a full season ahead of Indiana’s. Same fruit, earlier sun, different soil. She would have found that remarkable, I think. Maybe a little extravagant.
The base is hers. The method is hers. I’m just bringing what the season is offering right now. Fresh blueberries, a little sugar, cooked jammy and bright, spooned over the top and left to set. Her cream pie underneath. My whipped cream on top.
Some recipes just wait for the right kitchen to find them.
The Recipe
A note before you begin: this recipe comes from Helen’s black book, written in her hand, Mary Jane’s name at the top, but I’ve changed the margarine to butter and added the blueberry layer as my own contribution to the lineage.
A note on ovens: I made this pie, and my oven ran hot, which darkened the crust more than I wanted. Watch yours carefully in the final stretch. Every oven has its own opinion about baking times. Start checking at 40 minutes. The pie is done when the filling is thick, bubbling, and a light crust has formed on top. If yours comes out darker than expected, know that the filling can still be perfect underneath.
This is also a pie worth making twice. The first time you’re learning the recipe. The second time you’re making it.
The Pastry: Helen’s Method
If you choose to make the shell from scratch, I’d encourage it. Makes 2 crusts; freeze the second for next time.
2 C flour
1 t salt
⅔ shortening (Crisco or vegan)
¼ cup cold water
Sift the flour with the salt.
Remove ⅓ C of this mixture and set aside in a small bowl. Add ¼ C cold water to the reserved flour and mix to form a smooth paste.
Add ⅔ C Crisco or vegan shortening — both work — to the remaining flour (1⅔ C). Cut the shortening in until the pieces are the size of small peas. Add the flour paste to the shortening-flour mixture. Mix thoroughly until the dough comes together and can be shaped into a ball.
Divide into two parts. Roll each out to about ⅛ inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use one for this pie. Wrap the second and freeze it.
This is Helen’s pastry method, likely drawn from an original Crisco recipe or the same tradition. I used a vegan shortening. It worked perfectly. The paste technique creates distinct, reliable flaky layers regardless of which shortening you use. She knew what she was doing. The recipe holds up across a century and a few ingredient swaps.
Helen’s Old Fashioned Cream Pie
From the recipe box of Helen Carnes, Indiana
Serves 6 to 8 | Prep: 20 minutes | Bake: 50 to 55 minutes | Chill: 2 to 3 hours or overnight if adding blueberries
For the Filling
2 T flour
1 T cornstarch
¾ C sugar
¼ t nutmeg
2 T butter, softened
1 C heavy cream
1 C whole milk
Mix flour, cornstarch, sugar, nutmeg, and butter together until crumbly. Spread evenly in an unbaked 8-inch pie shell. Pour the cream and milk over the top. Do not stir.
Bake at 425°F until the pastry is light brown and a crust has formed on the filling (about 10 minutes). Gently break the filling crust with a rubber spatula and stir the mixture carefully. Reduce the heat to 350°F and bake until the filling bubbles thick and a light crust forms on top (40 to 45 minutes — start checking at 40).
This is the moment you trust her. It looks improbable until it doesn’t.
Remove from oven and cool completely before adding the blueberries.
For the Blueberries (Jen’s Addition)
3 C fresh blueberries (California season April through June)
1 T sugar
1 T of fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Combine 2 cups of the blueberries, sugar, lemon, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir gently until the berries release their juice (about 5 minutes), then add the remaining cup of blueberries and continue stirring until the mixture thickens to a jammy consistency (about 5 more minutes). Cool completely, then spoon over the top of the completely cooled pie. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours until set.
The blueberries are the one place I departed from Helen. She would have made the most of whatever the Indiana summer offered. I used what California is offering right now. The pie belongs to both of us.
For the Whipped Cream
1 C cold heavy whipping cream
1 T sugar
1 T vanilla bean paste
Chill the bowl and wire whisk attachment for 30 minutes. Mix on medium-high until you have soft, stiff peaks. Cool until ready to serve. Lasts for 12 hours in the fridge.
To Serve
A slice of pie, a dollop of cream, a pinch of nutmeg, and a sprig of mint.
That’s all it needs.
Helen would have poured coffee. Strong, black, exactly right for this pie. If you want to honor that, do the same.
Next Time
Three days with Lea, a dining table that deserves more use, a dog who hollers, and the week I finally sat down.
Before You Go
What recipe are you holding that you haven’t made yet? The one still in someone else’s handwriting, waiting in a box, waiting for the right afternoon. Or the one you’ve made and it didn’t work, and you made it again anyway because you knew it was worth figuring out.
I’m at the table. Write back. I read every one.
If this landed, tap the heart. It helps more people find the table.
Jennifer Ann Blair writes about what’s worth remembering — a recipe, a person, a name written in a mother's hand.
I remember this pie as a little girl it always tasted so good and putting a spoon full in your mouth was like heaven
I don’t know if all the older cooks made such delicious pies but to me Mom Carnes pie was so wonderful. She wasn’t just a cook but a woman who loved her family and wanted to give them the best of the best