Sug­ar-Cream Pie

(serves 8, or my moth­er when she’s in the mood)

1 store-bought pie crust, or you can make your own
5 table­spoons flour
1 cup unre­fined sugar
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanil­la extract
whole nutmeg

Sprin­kle flour and sug­ar into the unbaked pas­try crust, then add cream and mix WITH YOUR FIN­GERS. I know this sounds dis­gust­ing and it is. A bit. But every recipe I read includ­ed this arcane instruc­tion to mix with fin­gers, so I did. Just keep stir­ring gen­tly, pick­ing up the sug­ar from the bot­tom, squish­ing the flour bits into the cream, until it’s all mixed. Then gen­tly add vanil­la and grate nut­meg, just a sprin­kling, over the top.

Bake at 450F for 10 min­utes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake for anoth­er hour. Take the pre­cau­tion of lin­ing the oven floor with foil, because I did­n’t and the repul­sive job of clean­ing my oven which I’d done the DAY BEFORE will now have to be redone, because sug­ary cream leaked over the edge of the pie. Drat.

Cool com­plete­ly before serving.