Recipes Discovered

Pecan Pie Recipe

Shoo Fly Pie Recipe

My dad loved desserts, so for Father’s Day, I wanted to make him a pie. He couldn’t decide what his favorite pie was though, so I ended up making both a Pecan Pie and a Shoo Fly Pie. I had never made either of these pies before, which probably should have concerned me, but I wanted to make something impressive for my Dad. Impressive is one way to describe it.

I’ll start with the pecan pie, since that was the less adventurous of the two. I love pecan pie and it’s actually a fairly simple pie to make. I just mixed corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla together and poured it over an unbaked pie shell lined with pecans. The recipe said it should bake 45 to 50 minutes, but mine took well over an hour - probably close to an hour and 15 minutes. It turned out beautifully though. The pecans rose to the top and were nice and golden, and beneath was a gooey layer of carmely goodness. It was luscious and sweet, the essence of what Pecan Pie is supposed to be. >>

Making the shoo fly pie seemed rather easy as well. I wanted to make a wet bottom one (the dry is more like a coffee cake), but most of the recipes I looked at said that you should either mix half of the crumb mixture into the filling or put half of the crumb mixture in the bottom, then the filling, then top it with the remaining crumb mixture. Otherwise, the pie would be liquid on the bottom and would run all over when it was cut. All the recipes I looked at were slightly different from the other, so I just ended up picking one in the middle and using those measurements.

To make the crumb mixture, I combined flour and brown sugar in a bowl and then cut in shortening. I don’t have a pastry cutter, so I just used a fork and my fingers. I put about half of the crumbs into the bottom of an unbaked pie shell. For the filling, I mixed molasses, hot water, and baking soda together and then whisked in an egg. I poured this over the crumbs in the pie shell, and then topped it with the remaining crumb mixture. There are a lot of crumbs, but it needs a very thick layer to keep all the filling inside the pie shell. Also, a deep dish pie shell works much better than a regular pie shell. This pie baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then I reduced the temperature to 350 degrees (which is when I added the pecan pie to the oven as well).

After the shoo fly pie was in the oven about 25 minutes, I turned the oven light to check on it and wasn’t really whether to laugh or cry. The pie had not just baked over the shell, but it poured over the shell. Luckily, and I’m not even sure why I did, I had placed the pie shell directly on a baking sheet so the pie didn’t make a horrible mess in the oven, but it sure did a number on the baking sheet. I have no idea why it baked over so much, but please, take my advice and bake this pie on a baking sheet.

While it looked like a disaster on the baking sheet, once I cut away the extra pie, it looked fairly presentable. And when we cut into it, it was a perfect shoo fly pie. A thick layer of gooiness at the bottom of the pie was topped by an even thicker layer of sweet crumb cake. The flavor of this pie is definitely unique though. Molasses has a very distinct flavor that you either like or dislike, and if you like this pie or not is depended on that. I thought it was pretty good, though very different from any other pie I’ve had.

Overall, my dad thoroughly enjoyed both of his pies and it was a big learning experience for me. I guess both of those things make these pies a success.