If Harry Potter Had Celiac This Could Be His Favorite Pie

My roommate has been talking about the Shoofly Pie recipe in The Pie and Pastry Bible since March. She was on the Mediclear cleanse at the time, and she kept saying that when she was finished, she wanted to celebrate by making this pie.

She hadn't even heard of Shoofly Pie before, but discovered it in the the P+P Bible when we were planning our other roommate's GF tiramisu. The Shoofly Pie recipe is right next to the Black Bottomed Tiramisu Tart.

Of course, I was going to take the helm of this GF Shoofly Pie craze sweeping the apartment. But you all know how I feel about pie.

If you don't know how I feel about pie, I can sum it up thusly: in the amount of time it takes to get the pie dough resting in the pie pan (resting! not baked!), I can have a two layer cake baked and cooling on the table.

I'm just sayin'.

fresh out of the oven
this pie doesn't say "ya'll come in," it says "feestelijk inhalen alleman"

According to RLB, Shoofly Pie comes from Pennsylvania Dutch Country, which makes everyone I tell that to tell me that they thought it came from the South. Apparently, food historian Will Weaver discovered that it was one of the pie recipes handed out during the US Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876. So everyone, please take note: Shoofly Pie is NOT from the South.

Shoofly Pie is basically a molasses/gingerbready filling baked inside a pie crust. My ex-roomie's boyfriend likened the pie to Treacle Tart, which is Harry Potter's favorite dessert and so I am totally okay with that.

the gooey
the gooey, THE GOOEY

June 10, 2007
Name of Pie: Gluten Free Shoofly Pie, aka GF Treacle Tart
Occasion: My Roommate Is Parasite Free!
Constituents: GF Shoofly Pie, recipe based on RLB's Shoofly Pie

I hemmed and hawed about making this pie because I am having trouble in the GF baking world. My birthday GF tiramisu came out a bit grainy which is completely unacceptable. The only thing I can think of, is that some percentage of cornstarch is a good thing in the GF baking experience, as that ingredient was in every GF thing I've baked except my birthday tiramisu.

So this time, I decided to use the GF Mix and add some amount of cornstarch. How much? I didn't know. This was the problem.

I finally bucked up and started in on the pie crust. I made the Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust, but with 124 grams of GF Flour Mix and 20 grams of cornstarch...just 'cause. I realised that all these instructions for resting up the dough are to make sure the gluten doesn't overdevelop; I don't have a gluten problem here, people, so WTF! I'm not resting the dough!

Well, I did refrigerate the dough once or twice, just to make sure the butter didn't get too soft.

IMG_2226
check out my butter flakes!

Anyhoo, the freaking pastry dough finally came together and I got it in the pie plate, crimped the edges, and shoved it in the refrigerator.

look i even crimped the border
see, crimped pie crust

Then, I turned my attention to the filling.

A Shoofly Pie is made up of two different parts: a gooey molasses-coffee part and a crumbly flour-butter part.

Of course, I got all flustered about the crumbly flour-butter part. What was I going to do about the flour? The recipe called for all-purpose flour, which has more protein than cake flour. After too much deliberation, I remembered my sweet sorghum flour, which has more protein than any of the other GF flours I currently have in my pantry. After some brilliant math skills, I decided to use 70 grams sorghum flour, 40 grams potato starch, 35 grams tapioca flour, and 15 grams cornstarch...just 'cause.

I then realised that I was supposed to have chilled 115 grams of butter...so I measured it out and shoved it in the refrigerator.

the flour crumble
the flour-butter-spice crumble

Next I had to cut the chilled butter into the flour/golden sugar/spice/etc mix, which took FOREVER, and then, THEN, I was SO ready to put the pie together and bake it up!

stirring together the coffee, baking powder, and molasses
the molasses-coffee-baking powder

So, I added the baking powder to the warm coffee, which was neat because the whole thing got all fizzy and active, and then I stirred in the molasses and poured that whole thing into the pie plate. Then I sprinkled the flour crumble mix evenly over the top and baked that sucker for 45 minutes.

pour in the molasses mix, then sprinkle on the flour crumble
step 1: pour into unbaked pie shell

and splash a little molasses on yourself
step 2: splash some of the molasses stuff on yourself, and find some later in your "cleav" as Joelf likes to call it

pre-baked pie
step 3: sprinkle the flour mix evenly over the top

the finished pie!
step 4: bake for 45 minutes, and yum

Then, we ate it with some coffee ice cream and it was good. The deep and hearty flavors of molasses and coffee were very warming. This would be a good winter pie.

serving suggestion
serving suggestion: DO IT

I couldn't sleep at all that night, because of all the caffeine in the pie and ice cream. I guess that's why RLB says traditionally this pie is served warm for breakfast.

The GF pie crust was very thin, crisp, and brittle. I guess it was a little flaky, but I wasn't very impressed.

However, I had saved the last bits of the pie dough and rolled it up with some cinnamon and sugar and this morning I baked it in the toaster oven. This time the crust was buttery, and flaky, oh so flaky, and tender and crisp. I could not tell it was GF, and I could tell that it was freaking delicious. I don't know why it tasted better today than it did in the pie--maybe I'm rolling the dough too thin or something. But today--today that crust was the bomb.

Comments

  1. Anonymous14/6/07 12:13

    That did take a long time! You are a good friend to do a GF pie. I would make them eat a rice cracker with honey!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous24/6/07 10:58

    Yeah...so where's the Rose's raspberry chocolate cake? Come on. I hope you took a picture!
    I have to make my husband's birthday cake tonight. I am thinking of taking an easy route and do a chocolate chiffon cake. I have to get up at 0430 tomorrow and don't fancy staying up all night baking. I am sure you understand this!

    ReplyDelete
  3. melinda, i always seem to stay up half the night baking. there have been times where i have been falling asleep on a little step stool in the kitchen waiting for cakes to bake at 4 in the morning.

    sigh. that raspberry ganache is the best stuff in the world and i would love to swim in it. have you tried to make it yet? soooo worth the time. i've started the post about it but i am having serious blogging blocks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So, I am very interested in hearing more about this acupunk@sea business.

    pies rule. especially mine...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous13/7/07 16:16

    Hope you are recovering from your blogging block. How about you go to a bakery in Portland and tell me what is good? I understand Rose's doesn't exist anymore. When I was at Good Sam that was such a treat to go there and have a Reuben and then share a gigantic slice of cake she used to do. I wonder why it didn't carry on?
    I have been been a bit homesick for Oregon, especially Portland at the the moment. Our family have a beach house in Oceanside and I spent most of my summer vacations with my grandmother there. Such lovely memories.
    So go by something good and blog for me about it. It is my birthday soon so this is a kind of a birthday wish I would like. You tell me what you would like for me to do especially here in England and I will try to do that for you. (I am imagining that you want me to find the best Spotted Dick in London or something saucy like that!) Are you game for a challenge?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous15/7/07 10:45

    I have been tagged to reveal 7 random things about myself you may not know.
    They are pretty boring but there you go! I am tagging you now to dish some juicy secrets. Love to hear what you come up with!

    ReplyDelete

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