This recipe for shoofly pie won the purple ribbon for “Best in Show” one year at the Carbon County Fair. I was very proud to present my pie to them, and I am proud to share the recipe with you.

This pie is full of flavor and tradition. You can make it any time of the year. I serve it with a scoop of my homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

Or enjoy it with your favorite hot drink.

An anytime pie, this pie will be a crowd-pleaser any day.

Shoofly Pie

Crumb topping:

1½ cups of all-purpose flour

2/3 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons of vegetable shortening

¼ teaspoon of salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Save ¾ cup in a separate bowl for the pie topping later.

Pie crust:

2½ cups of all-purpose flour, sifted

1½ sticks of unsalted butter (cold and diced for a flaky crust)

¼ cup of Crisco (cold)

A few tablespoons of water (If you lightly work dough in your hands and it comes together, then that is enough water.)

¼ teaspoons of salt

1 tablespoons of sugar

Ice

Place all of your dry ingredients in a bowl. Cover. Place in the refrigerator for about a half-hour. Also at this time, place the empty food processor bowl in your refrigerator.

Before you make your dough, make some ice water and place it in your refrigerator until you are ready to use. Take your cold food processor bowl and add your dry ingredients. Pulse to combine. Add butter, shortening and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. Measure out about 8 tablespoons of cold water in a measuring cup. While pulsing the machine, drizzle in the cold water.

Once all the water is added, check to see if the dough is wet enough by squeezing it in your hand. Do not process to a ball of dough. The dough is moist enough when you pick the mixture up in your hand, squeeze it, and if it holds together, it is moist enough.

Take two pieces of plastic wrap, one for each half of the dough. Place each half of the dough in the pieces of plastic wrap.

Push the dough together to combine ingredients, using the plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to slightly flatten the dough out and equalize the dough. Refrigerate the wrapped dough. Use a rolling pin to make dough uniform.

Refrigerate for at least an hour, up to overnight. This dough can stay in the refrigerator a day or two before making your pie. (You can also wrap this dough and freeze it. It works well for making fresh pies any time.)

After the dough is taken out of the refrigerator and shaped, roll out to fit your favorite pie pan. Place the dough in the refrigerator to set up for a little while. (Pie crusts can be sealed in a zippered bag and frozen for future use. I store mine for about a month.)

Pie filling:

1 cup of Grandma’s Molasses

1 large egg, room temperature

1 cup of hot water

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix molasses and egg together and set aside. Mix water and baking soda together briskly, until the baking soda is dissolved. Pour the water mixture into the egg/molasses mixture. Whisk briskly.

Mix this entire filling with the rest of the crumb mixture, less the ¾ cup you set aside. Combine well. Let stand a moment or two.

Fill the pie crust with the pie filling, and top the pie with the ¾ cup of reserved crumbs. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 F and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs and the top is a light brown.

Remove from the oven and set on to a cooling rack.

Let cool and serve room temperature or cool.

My siblings eat this pie any time of the day, sometimes with fresh seasonal fruit, or even a mug of hot cocoa in the winter.

Related Article