Don't Bother Me: Shoofly Pie

On this festive St Patty's Day, I find the time and inclination to catch up a bit on the ol' baking blog. Don't think that I haven't been baking in the blog-silence. I have. Quite a bit. Pies have been the theme of late as well, especially with the recent awesomeness of Pi(e) Day (3.14). So while K-Patz determines her mascot face-off bracket (I ask you: who would win? A Ute or a Wildcat? A Jayhawk or a Bison? Difficult to call...) and Bean reads up on some juicy gossip blogs, and corned beef and soda bread transform from bloody meat and goo to deliciousness, I will fill you in on the one pie that I have made that I really didn't enjoy eating.

A long time ago, in a land far away (on the Upper East Side), I came across a little framed gem:


As I had all the items in the cupboards -- including that molasses I bought for gingerbread men cookies I never got around to making over the holidays -- it seemed fitting to make it. If you're going to hang a recipe up as art, you'd best have made the recipe...


Shoofly Pie - from Miss Rose, procured from Housing Works Thrift Shop
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup corn syrup
1 cup water
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 nine-inch pie shell (uncooked)

After you mix together the syrup, molasses, water, soda, and egg put half in a separate bowl. Now mix the brown sugar, butter, and flour with half your batter and pour it into your pie shell. Carefully pour the other half of your batter on the top. Heat up your stove to 400 and cook for 25 min. Chill and serve.


Sometimes I have issues making pie crust. When I say sometimes I mean all the time. It's like each time I roll out the crust, it's the first time. Constantly a virgin pie crust maker. It's my curse. This was one of the worst, which caused my pie to come out like this:


Stupid crust. All the sugary goodness leaked and freaking RUINED MY PIE.

And on top of that, I don't really like molasses. It was really sweet, really molasses-y, and kind of spongy. Super strange texture. Didn't really like it, but you know, I ate it all anyway.

Moral of this story is: you don't have to like the pie to hang the recipe on the wall.