Shoo Fly Pie

A few weeks ago we were invited to a BYOP [bring your own pie] first birthday party. I knew that, with it being the end of summer, there would be a ton of delicious fruit pies. Also, my pastry chef friend, Elizabeth, would be in attendance and I wanted to do something a little bit sassy and unusual for her.

I was brainstorming for a couple of days, when I remembered an AWESOME pie that my mom made....Shoo Fly Pie. Shoo Fly Pie is apparently a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. It is called shoo fly pie because the molasses used are sweet enough to attract flies that you need to shoo away.

It's flavor is hard to explain but is so flippin good. It has all the molasses goodness of a ginger snap, a little bit of the gooey texture of a pecan pie and crumb, lots of crumb. What could be better?

I tweaked my mom's recipe just a little bit by adding ground pecans and a little cinnamon to my crumb. The result was amazing!

In typical Kristi-fashion, I rolled my eyes when my Mom advised me to use a deep dish/ 10 inch pie pan. "Ughhh Mom...I can figure it out and I refuse to use something that I don't already own."

Well, a house full of smoke from overflowing pie guts later, I found out that Mama knew best.

So, use a deep dish pie pan or cut down on the crumb and liquid mixture by a third if using a normal pie pan.

Shoo-Fly Pie
Shell
Use your favorite pie dough recipe or buy a frozen pie shell.
 
Crumb
6 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1  cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans [walnuts would work well too]
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Liquid
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 cut hot water then cooled
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dark molasses
2 egg yolks, beaten well 
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a food processor, pulse the crumb ingredients together until the pecans are coarsely chopped.

 Briefly whisk the egg yolks to break up the yolks. Whisk the molasses into the yolks. Whisk until combined. Whisk in the remaining ingredients for the liquid portion of the pie.

Pour 1/3 of the crumb mixture into the base of your pie shell [hopefully a shell that is within a deep pie dish]. 

Pour half of the liquid on top, followed by another third of the crumb mixture, then the rest of the liquid and the remaining third of the crumb mixture on top. So pretty!

Place your pie pan on a cookie sheet and bake at 400º for about 10 minutes. Turn oven to 325º and bake until the center is a bit firm about 25-30 minutes.

Remember, my pie ran WAY over the sides of my dish because I did not listen to my mama! It still tasted amazing and yours will be much prettier than mine.