My grandmother Jackie McFadden’s favorite recipe to cook and eat was Shoo-Fly Pie. Dessert was a treat for her family, especially this pie. She thinks the desserts of the 1940s were the sweetest and best. She loved to be around the oven and especially making Shoo-Fly Pie with her children.
While cooking this dessert, the family always seemed to notice how more flies were around the kitchen. The children chanted “Shoo-Fly You’re Bothering Me”, and believed they originated the song “Shoo-Fly Don’t Bother Me.”
Now, my grandmother makes the pie with her grandchildren when we are all together. This is our family’s special dessert. The youngsters chant “Shoo-Fly You’re Bothering Me” in the kitchen while our parents insist they made up the song. That became a family tradition, too.
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 1/2 tablespoons lard
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 large egg, slightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 9-inch deep dish unbaked pie shell
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix the flour, brown sugar, and lard together until crumbly. Measure 1/2 cup of this mixture and set it aside to be used for the crumb topping.
- Add the molasses, egg and baking soda/hot water mixture to the remaining flour mixture. Pour the batter into pie shell. Sprinkle the reserved 1/2 cup of crumbs over the top.
- Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20 more minutes. As the Shoo-Fly Pie bakes, a gooey wet layer will form in the pie crust, below the molasses crumb cake.
Makes 8 servings.
