Shoofly Pie Recipe
Shoofly pie is something I always wanted to make but never did until now.
Gotta be a molasses person to love Shoofly pie
Now, if you’re not a molasses person, this pie won’t be for you. Shoofly Pie or Molasses Cake as some have called it dates back all the way to 1876 in Amish country.
Me, I’m a molasses person. I find that the older I get the more I crave and adore the rich strong flavor of deep, dark molasses. Adding to the fact that I’m a brown sugar lover and those are the two primary ingredients in a Shoofly pie, I can’t imagine not loving it.
Where did Shoofly Pie get it’s name?
Well according to the Chicago Tribune article
the unusual name was penned because ‘the pools of sweet, sticky molasses sometimes formed on the surface of the pie while it was cooling (and) inevitably attracting flies.’ Not so nice, but makes sense! Let’s try not to think of those flies as we move on to
How To Make A Shoofly Pie Recipe
Ingredients You’ll need are:
- All Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Molasses
- Butter
- Brown Sugar (I’m using dark)
- Eggs
- Hot tap water
- Two Pie Crusts
Store bought or from scratch pie crusts are fine for this Shoofly Pie recipe
I am using store bought pie crusts because I need the dishes to be disposable. Make your own or buy them, whichever works best for you. We’re making pies and having fun so don’t get hung up on the idea that anything other than made-from-scratch is somehow below standard. Get in there and don’t let anyone rain on your parade!
Lets make us a pie, shall we?
- Place your brown sugar in a bowl…
- Add in flour
- Have happy children stir it up.
- Crack eggs into mixing bowl.
- Like so…
- Use mixer to beat those up a bit.
- Pour in molasses.
- Mix that up well.
- Add baking soda to hot water and stir to dissolve.
- Add into mixture.
- Mix that up a bit.
- Take flour mixture and add in butter.
- Cut in with fork.
- Until well mixed up, like so.
- Take about half of that and add it to the wet mixture.
- Like so…
- Let ‘er rip and mix it up really well.
- Pour (or ladle in my case) mixture into each pie shell .
- Like this. 🙂
- Sprinkle remaining dry mixture over tops.
- There, all ready to bake now! Bake according to recipe at bottom (preheat at 450 then reduce to 350 and cook for 30 mins)
- Allow to cool.
This was my first taste of Shoofly pie and I have to say I was delighted. I expected it to be a lot stronger flavor and even considered substituting honey for the molasses at one point just in case but it came out much milder than you’d expect and with a bit of a spongy, cakey texture. Would be DIVINE served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with molasses!
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You may also like these pies:
Caramel Banana Pie AKA Easy Banoffee Pie
Sweet Potato Pie Southern Plate Style
Oh Oh you just struck a nerve or should I say A sweet tooth. Now I will have to make a Shoo Fly Pie or the thought of it will never go away. LOL
I just dearly love your website. Keep on keepin’on.
Hey Skip,
Thank you so very much. I dearly love hearing things like this. I do hope you know that you’ve really warmed my heart and put a smile on my face!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Sweet! I love when you have your kitchen helpers with ya. And what are you talking about accents?? We don’t have have no accents down here!! It’s you northern southerners that talk funny 🙂 Love the Tennessee pics too – I just love Tennessee. I got married there in Nashville ya know. 😉 Have a great week.
P.S. I did NOT make a shoofly pie this weekend – how ’bout that?!
You know, I read these comments in my email before I read them online and so I don’t really see who left them until I come here to respond. BUT, I got to your “P.S.” and instantly knew who it was and laaauuuuggghhhhed! lol
You’re right, I don’t have any accent at all! I didn’t know you got married in Nashville! There is a little chapel on a hill there that is all white and so very pretty, I wanted to be married there but it ended up just being too much of a hassle to get everyone to drive to Nashville so we got married in our neck of the woods. I still really enjoy seeing that little chapel every time we drive by though!
Tennessee is beautiful. Have you ever heard that one about how you can tell a Tennessee cow from an Alabama cow?
Looks great! I would love to have a slice with a huge, very cold, glass of sweet milk!!
I wonder where the name Shoofly Pie started? I bet there is a very funny story there somewhere….
Thanks, Christy!
I have heard it said that the name came from the fact that back in the day folks often had to do their baking in outside ovens and that the sticky sweet molasses would often attract flies and bakers would always be shooing away the flies from their pies!
Sounds perfectly plausable and very likely true.
Hey Mary, I have actually read the exact same thing myself so my money is on you being right!
Wonderful recipe! This is going to be one of our holiday dishes, for sure. 🙂 Side note: when I read this online, my 11 year old daughter was standing next to me and asked, “Why do they call it shoo-fly pie?”
I smiled and said, “‘Cause it’s so sweet, you have to shoo the flies away!”
She rolled her eyes and replied, “Well you have to shoo them away from poop, too!”
Oh the joys of a Tween…
LOL!
That is hysterical! I appreciate your daughter’s quick wit. 🙂
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That sounds like something my daughter would say VERY LOUDLY when I was on the phone! lol
Love your pictures, and that is a great recipe! I have always wanted to make that too, but still haven’t gotten around to it. I am going to have to go back and watch that special, I had heard about it, but never seen it. I think there was one too on the poor children of the gulf coast, or maybe that info was in that special too. My boss’s wife, at the time, was from Costa Rica, and she always talked about how poor Costa Rica is. (I have no doubt Costa Rica is very poor, but she thought all of the U.S. looked like her upscale subdivision in Orlando). I would share similar stories about the rural area I was from, about poor people living in shacks and buses, and she thought I was making it all up, till she say that special on t.v. Its nice it opened people’s eyes, but the subtitling, please, that’s crazy!
Hey Southern Grace,
Your name relaxes me 🙂 every time I read it.
Oh my, Orlando is a lovely place but you’re right, if folks think the rest of the country is like that – wow. Oh well, I’m guilty of knowing little of the country outside of the southeast myself.
I hope you get to see it. It is a fascinating special but then the subtitles kind of get you riled a bit as a Southerner. I think thats just a natural reaction though. 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy
I had shoo-fly pie when I was a kid. It was a luncheon at school, and each student had to bring in a dessert from their heritage. Someone made shoo-fly pie, and it was amazing. I did not know it was this easy to make. I will be making this one!
thank you for the recipe!
hey Puppydogs, thank YOU for reading it! Also thank you for continually making me smile every time I see your screen name! SO CUTE!!
You managed to get the whole family in one post, even if Ricky was just in by his reflection. The designations of happy kid and responsible kid tickled me. I remember Keri Russell pre-Felicity. I watched her on the Mickey Mouse Club when I was an early teen.
This is a to try recipe. We have a dinner at church Sunday so I’ll probably make it for that since I have over half a chocolate chip pound cake in the fridge.
PS I guess I would fit the happy child description because I love the feel of flour, especially cold from the fridge flour. When I bake I make sure my hands are impeccably clean because I love to play in the flour in the bowl.
hehe, Happy Child is also known as “She who tries to get away with much”!
You seem more like me. You like the feel of flour but if you aren’t supposed to touch it, you won’t! lol
I live in Penna in Amish country one could say. I don’t ever recall making shoo fly pie in a baked pie shell . We were always taught to make it in raw pie shell. Is there a reason for this ? Does it help with the pie? I’m just curious. It sounds interesting . I’m thinking of giving it a try.
You know, I’ve never made it any other way so I’m afraid I can’t tell ya. I’m sure it would bake just fine though. Go with your gut (and local tradition) 🙂