I didn’t feel like making a regular pie crust, so I sort of cheated and used a store-bought graham cracker crust, but the filling and topping are from scratch. Yes, I used the new food processor to do the crumbly stuff (about 2/3 to 3/4 of it goes into the filling, with the rest sprinkled on top). For those of you who may be unfamiliar with shoo fly pie, it’s a gooey molasses pie that sets up like pecan pie when it cools, but has no nuts, and isn’t as sweet. I suppose dark treacle could be substituted for the molasses. It’s typically an Amish specialty.
It’s rich and savory, I’m a fan. I’m also hideously fond of baked custard pie.
I’ve heard of it but never tried it. Sounds delicious. BTW- what exactly is treacle? (Aside from being Harry Potter’s favorite tart.)
Same here. But I’ve got to say, it looks absolutely delicious! Now I want to try my hand at making one!
Dave, treacle and molasses are really similar, but there’s a slight difference in how they’re made (molasses–boiled down from the room-temp drainings during sugar refining; treacle–boiled down from the first boiling during sugar refining). Kind of like the difference between grappa and marc.
Treacle tart and shoofly pie are not all that different as recipes, but shoofly pie recipes generally have eggs in them for a richer base.
Why is it called Shoo Fly?
Because while it’s cooling, somebody has to stand over it and shoo away the flies. It may be mainly Amish where you are, Rusty, but most native Southerners know it well. Not as well as chess pie, though.
Ahhhh.
I’d fail at that. It would be all gone. Maybe I could blame flies for it.
I’d never heard of a chess pie until my next door neighbor baked a chocolate version of one and brought it over for us. It was delicious, but so disgustingly rich that I couldn’t eat more than a 1/2″ wide sliver of it, measured at the perimeter, before I started feeling a little sick. Is the original version, sans chocolate, easier on the stomach? Bear in mind, I have nothing against chocolate, but I’m not a big fan, either.
Didn’t realize shoo fly was so popular in the South. Up North, we rarely see it outside of Amish county. Live and learn; if I ever stop doing that, I’ll be dead. 😉
You might be surprised, though, Otter, about my ability to bake other kinds of pies that are considered regional specialties from outside my region. I make a pretty darn good sweet potato pie, and when key limes are in season (yes, I can get real key limes here), I make a pretty darn good key lime pie, too, that any Floridian would accept as being authentic.
Can I have some? I love shoo-fly pie.
*drool* I love shoo fly pie, I haven’t had it in years.