(gentle music) - I think everybody's grandma, at least my age, everybody's grandma made pie.

It was the whole process of love that went into making the dough and rolling it out that takes you back to a place when you were a little kid and you can remember the smell and you can remember the table that you sat at and how long it took to come out of the oven and waiting, you know, to cool so that you could have some.

- It kind of brings happiness to people, it brings people together and it helps to just foster relationships with family and friends and it's really about coming together and enjoying a slice of pie.

- [Narrator] If someone were to ask you what the official state pie of Indiana is, what would your guess be?

Would you guess sugar cream pie?

Well, you'd be wrong.

Sort of.

- The Indiana sugar cream pie is the unofficial/official state pie.

We say that because it did not actually pass in both houses when it went to a vote but it is so near and dear to everyone's hearts that we call it the unofficial/official Indiana state pie.

- [Narrator] So what makes sugar cream pie so unique to Indiana?

- Our sugar cream pie recipe came from my great-grandmother's kitchen.

It's made with simple farm ingredients and all those ingredients could be found in most farm kitchens in Indiana so that's why it makes it unique to Indiana, in my opinion.

- The sugar cream pie goes back to that Shaker and Amish community.

They technically used to call it desperation pie because you were using ingredients that you had on hand during those desperate times.

You know, long winters when you didn't have other staples available.

You did have the cream, the flour, everything on hand was easily ready.

That's basically how the sugar cream pie was born.

- I think probably it was a pie, when other things were hard to get, that had simple ingredients that were on hand and had some flavor and people could have a dessert.

- [Narrator] Wick's Pies has been a staple of Winchester, Indiana for nearly 80 years and helped establish Indiana as the home of the sugar cream pie.

- Wick's was founded by my father in 1944 out of a restaurant and at one point in time had 100 waitresses on staff as well as baking and selling pies.

- We've been here for nearly 80 years.

We've got people that have been working with us for 45 plus years that love it at Wick's and do a great job for us and I consider them part of our family as well.

- [Narrator] In just one shift, Wick's produces 10,000 pies which can be shipped to nearly every state.

- As communities and as our our nation grows, we've lost a lot of ownership of businesses in town to national and international ownership.

Local family businesses are more important to the community because they still have ties of ownership and management to the community.

- [Narrator] Wick's Pies has been serving Winchester and beyond for decades, but during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexandria, Indiana found their own little ray of sunshine.

- The Sunshine and Cinnamon Cafe was opened October 10th in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic.

It was fortunate that we started when we did.

I know that sounds a little silly because of the pandemic but we didn't have to change our plan.

We started out with carry out only.

It was a way for us to kind of ease in for people to get to know us, and it just worked.

Every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, I probably have 15 or 20 sugar cream cream pies that go out every time.

- [Narrator] Big business or local bakery, you can enjoy amazing sugar cream pies all across Indiana with a little help from Indiana Foodways.

- The mission of Indiana Foodways Alliance is to tell the story of these locally-owned restaurants throughout Indiana.

The Hoosier Pie Trail is everything pie Indiana.

There are 33 stops all throughout the state and it is one of our most popular trails.

In 2015, we actually beat out the Bourbon Trail in "USA Today's" 10 best food trails in America.

- We're part of the Hoosier Pie Trail and it's kind of a neat thing.

There's a lot of other foods that are featured as food trails, but the Hoosier Pie trail is especially important because the history connected to it with this pie and the uniqueness to our state with the pie as well.

- People that follow the pie trail, they go to every single place on this trail.

I mean, it's a thing.

People really do, they come from everywhere.

(gentle music continues) - I was able to introduce sugar cream pie to quite a few people.

People's faces light up when they have something they've never tried before.

I sometimes describe it as like a country creme brulee but really it's just better to taste the pie.

- I've seen people, they've had it here that have never had it before and they're like, "Oh my God."

It was like the same reaction that I had, like, "This is what this is?"

I think that's what people that try it for the first time think as well.

They have some conception of what it is and when they see it, they're like, "Okay."

- It brings back memories for people, whether they grew up with it or whether they had it for a special occasion or they have a memory tied to it.

It's that feeling too, that you get with eating that sugar cream pie.

- I've eaten so many sugar cream pies.

I can't tell you when I had my first piece and I do know I had my last piece about an hour ago.

- [Narrator] And what about you?

When was the last time you had a slice of the official/unofficial Indiana state pie?

For more stories, check out wfyi.org/acrossindiana.

- [Announcer] This story was made possible by a grant from WETA.

Presenting "Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories" available on the PBS app.

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