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Shoofly Pie

Shoofly pie is a molasses crumb pie that originated in the US in the late 19th century among the Pennsylvania Dutch communities. A strongly flavored pie, it was traditionally served cold with a cup of hot coffee as a quick breakfast for a busy farmer. This "wet-bottom" version is adapted from a recipe found in an old recipe scrapbook, which was re-published in The New York Times in both 1965 and 2022. Other versions use baking powder instead of baking soda, adjust the spices, or cook the pie until it is solid ("dry-bottom").

Source and licence

"Shoofly Pie" from the Wikibooks Cookbook (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Shoofly_Pie, revision 4658382), by its contributors (https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Cookbook:Shoofly_Pie&action=history), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Read the original CC-BY-SA-4.0 Revision 4658382

What was changed: Reformatted by FoodByNation from the wiki page: ingredients and steps extracted, links and templates removed, diet notes detected from the ingredients. This adaptation is also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

United States. Associated with United States by curated dish list: shoofly pie (confidence 0.75). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. Fit your raw pie crust into the pie plate. Because the pie filling is liquid, do not dock (prick holes in) the dough or use a perforated pie plate. Patch any accidental holes or tears you see. Shape the pie crust edges however you would like.
  2. Freeze the empty pie crust for 15 minutes, or refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C, gas mark 5, moderately hot).
  4. Line the cold pie crust with parchment paper or a paper coffee filter that is big enough to cover the entire pie, from edge to edge, when pressed down.
  5. Fill the paper with pie weights. These will hold the parchment paper against the side of the pie crust, to keep it from melting and sliding down the edges in the oven.
  6. Bake for 20–25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and then remove the pie weights and the paper. Discard the paper. The pie weights can be stored and reused.
  7. Turn the oven temperature up to 450 °F (230 °C, gas mark 8, hot/very hot).
  8. Transfer the butter pieces, flour, brown sugar, and spices into a mixing bowl.
  9. Cut or rub the ingredients together. You can do this with a pastry blender, wooden spoon, or electric mixer. Stop before the mixture is completely blended together—you should still be able to see some small lumps of butter.
  10. Spread at least a quarter of the raw streusel filling across the bottom of the parbaked pie crust.
  11. Stir the boiling water and molasses together in the heat-proof bowl.
  12. Working quickly, stir the baking soda into the molasses-water mixture, and then immediately pour it into the pie crust, on top of the streusel filling.
  13. Top with the rest of the streusel filling, spreading it flat with your hand or the back of a spoon if needed.
  14. Cover the edges of the crust with a pie crust shield or aluminum foil, so they will be less likely to overcook.
  15. Carefully put the pie in the oven to bake. The boiling hot liquid filling will slosh when you move the pie, so move slowly. You may want to put a baking sheet under the pie to catch any drips.
  16. Bake at 450 °F (230 °C, gas mark 8, hot/very hot) for 15 minutes.
  17. Reduce the temperature to 350 °F (175 °C, gas mark 4, moderate/medium) for another 20 minutes. The pie filling should be set (i.e. it should not wiggle when you take it out of the oven), but the exact amount of doneness is a matter of personal preference.
  18. Let cool before serving—if you don't, it will make a mess when you cut it.