ZIONSVILLE — Kelly Maucere calls it pie love.
“We want people to fall in love with our pies,” Maucere said.
She’s the owner of My Sugar Pie, a pie shop she opened nearly 16 years ago. But Maucere’s love of baking began long before the creation of her brick-and-mortar store.
“My mom taught me when I was a young child,” Maucere said. “It was just something that I always enjoyed doing.”
That enjoyment followed her during her time as a kindergarten teacher.
“When I had vacation time, that's what I would spend my time doing, making pies,” Maucere said. “I have this crazy addiction to pie.”
The proof is in the selection of pies available at My Sugar Pie. Maucere bakes around 50 different types of pies. From seasonal classics like pumpkin, pecan, apple and cherry, to Hoosier staples like the sugar cream pie.
“The Hoosier sugar cream pie is the one that took me about 6 months to come up with,” Maucere said. “It’s been huge. We’ve been in People magazine, Country Living magazine [and the] Food Network, all because of that pie.”
Maucere says the sugar cream pie predates the state of Indiana and that it’s a dessert pioneered by pioneers.
“It was something easy for them to make when they didn't have any apples left,” Maucere said. “It's simple ingredients and it's just something that they could make year round and I think it just became a tradition.”
Tradition is what it’s all about.
“Each pie that we make is made by hand,” Maucere said. “So there's a lot of comfort in knowing that. I think sometimes there's a loss of that craft in baking and that's what we're trying to encourage here. The people that are making the pies have pride in their work.”
And pies can be a lot of work. Especially the dutch apple pie.
“We have to peel the apples,” Maucere said. “Just the amount of time it takes to bake one of those pies, I would say that's probably one of the more difficult ones but the cream pies are difficult because you have to make them in really small batches. So that takes more time and more skill to cook the cream filling the right way.”
Doing things the right way also means using local suppliers. And if you happen to grow your own produce, Maucere will even bake a custom pie just for you.
“If somebody wants us to make a pie with fruit from their home we can do that,” Maucere said. “We did a wedding where we made strawberry rhubarb pies and all the rhubarb was from the family's home gardens.”
Pie love, delivered one slice at a time.
“We are so happy to be a part of people's Thanksgivings and holidays,” Maucere said. “We really love what we do and thank everyone for supporting us for almost 16 years.”
