Shoofly Pie

Another completely new pie introduced to me by the Pie Bible. The shoofly pie originates from Pennsylvania Dutch country and is made from molasses, coffee, and spices. It’s supposedly so good, you have to shoo the flies away (hence the name).

I know I raved about my own baking in the last post, and perhaps I shouldn’t have because this one was not so good. I could tell even though I’ve never had shoofly pie before in my life; it’s very obviously cracked and over-baked. I was in a rush, so I hadn’t rested the dough properly and the crust burst all along the bottom while baking. And all the molasses and coffee juices just oozed on out. I think it was supposed to be densely chewy on the bottom and crumbly crunchy on top. But I was pretty much left with bread in soggy crust. What can I say? Pies are like children; they somehow know you didn’t give them your undivided attention and rebel against you.

One good thing is that, though the texture was totally off, it still tasted pretty good. I find that even if the baking goes wrong, it’ll still technically ‘taste’ good if you put in all the right ingredients. But, of course, texture is what brings it all together and makes it ‘actually’ good. I sorta want to make this one again, partly because I’m very curious as to what the shoofly pie is really like and partly because I absolutely hate doing poorly on something and usually try again until I’m better. Perhaps once the project is over I’ll do some remakes of the mess-ups. This one will surely be on the list!