Shoo-Fly Pie

Remember, I was supposed to tell you about 2 things? The second is a shoo-fly pie. My brother texted me to say I should make a shoo-fly pie. Twice, so I know he's serious. My semi-flippant response was I'd make it just before washing the sheets and towels. They need washing so it's time to make myself a shoo-fly pie.

This recipe is a bit more difficult than the previous entries. Normally, I start with a recipe and see what comes out. This time, there's no recipe. I've searched all my cookbooks and I found just one from 1965.  So I turned to the internet.

Whew. There's a lot going on with this recipe. Originally called Centennial Cake, it was a molasses based cake made to celebrate the centennial signing of the Declaration of Independence. To make it easier to eat, it was placed in a pie crust. But the name shoo-fly itself is either named after a brand of molasses or because you had to shoo the flies away from the molasses pie after baking. It comes in two varieties, wet-bottom and dry-bottom. Wet-bottom has a cake like texture at top and a custard-like consistency underneath. Dry-bottom, as you can imagine, is fully set top to bottom.

As for how to make it, there are recipes here, here, here, here, and here. But I'm not going to make any of them. Since I prefer ambiguity in my old recipes, I'll use a recipe from 1915 from Mary At The Farm And Book Of Recipes Compiled During Her Visit Among The "Pennsylvania Germans" (link).

For the most part this is straightforward except for the "small sized pie-tins." I got a 6 inch pie pan; it's small, so it should work, right? I'll try it. Also since I'm only making one pie, I'll divide everything by 3. Lastly, I don't have lard so I'll substitute more butter. Here's what I ended up doing:

Shoofly Pie

Crust:

1/3 cup + 1 T butter

pinch salt 

1 cup flour

3 T water

Work butter into salt and flour until crumbly. Add water by tablespoons just until dough begins to come together. Split dough into halves and gather into balls. Roll out half of dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper. Transfer to pie pan and crimp edges.

Pie Filling:

1 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup molasses, unsulfured type

1/3 cup hot water

1/3 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Combine first 3 ingredients in large bowl with hands until crumbly. 

In small bowl, mix together molasses and water. In a very small bowl, combine vinegar and soda, pour into molasses mixture. Stir. Pour into pie crust. Sprinkle on top as many crumbs as you can fit (about half). Bake about 35 minutes or until puffy and mostly set. Cool completely.

(For those curious about what I did with the other half of the pie crust dough and crumb mixture, I made a galette filled with crumb mixture. It was good, but a bit dry.)

Well, what have I learned? I have learned that a small pie tin is probably a normal sized because all my crumbs didn't fit. I've also learned that this version is a physically unimpressive specimen of a pie. Its a bit ugly, being a sort of mottled brown and sunken in the center. Taste-wise, its good but a bit one dimensional having only molasses for flavor. But I like molasses so I think this is a plus. I suspect I've ended up with a wet-bottom version as the texture is a bit fudge-y at the bottom.