My Grandma's Shoofly Pie Recipe

I loved this recipe! I was looking for a shoo fly pie recipe like the ones I grew up with in Pennsylvania, and this is authentic! I used a 9 inch deep dish shell, and I still did not use all of the filling and crumbs. If you do, it WILL spill over, and believe me, it's a mess. I also think to get the right consistency, you need to alternate layering the crumbs with the filling, with crumbs on the bottom and the top. Bake time was just right, even with the deep dish crust. I let it cool 30 min. before digging in. This pie is best served warm, but don't microwave it to reheat it. Thanks for a recipe that I will make when I want some true comfort food!

My family is from PA, and my mother/granmother use to make this on ocassion. I like to cook/bake, and have made it now several times. Always trying to perfect it. And, this is almost a perfect recipe too. Those trying it for the first time.. you can vary the ingredients some. The liquid part. So it doesn't overflow. Use 3/4 cup molassas and 3/4 cup of water. Strength/bitterness will depend on the molassas (robustness). The pie wont' taste so bitter if you use the lighter types. If you only have the robust, try using only 1/2 cup molassas and more water, or swap with 1/4 karo. Some only use karo, but, you won't get the traditional flavor of a true shoefly pie. You can also just do 1/2 cup M.. and 1 cup of water. This will make it less robust, and prevent it from spilling over. You will also get the the wet bottom if you sprinkle a little of the dry topping in first, then liquid, then more dry, etc. I prefer this way, as it won't be too liquid on the bottom. I also add a couple drops of cider vinegar to the liquid mix to give it a little more umph. But, only a few drops. Again, if you are making/following this recipe, best if you use a slightly larger pie shell, or cut back some on the liquid... Otherwise, it may overflow. Good luck!

Delicious. BUT...If you use a frozen deep dish crust like Mrs. Smiths or Pillsbur it will overflow. Cut out 1/4 of everything except egg and you will be good.

This was incredibly delicious and so easy. I used a deep dish crust and baked slightly longer than the extra 30 minutes because I wasn't confident I should take it out yet since it still jiggled a good bit. In retrospect I think it would have been fine. I had no issues with spilling, just a very small amount that you tend to have with almost any pie. I put it on a baking sheet with foil because I was so concerned about a mess. Nothing spilled over far enough to even get on the foil. I served it at room temperature with a very large dollop of vanilla whipped cream. It was so so good. Oh and I almost forgot - I forgot to chill the shortening and was in a rush so I used some unsalted butter I had in the fridge and it worked a charm

This recipe is almost exactly my mother and grandmother used. Our family is a Lancaster County family from way back (1736 or so) and I just scanned in all my mom's old recipes. This is the same recipe my Mom used and always came out delicious, but her change to this was using 1/3 cup Grandma's molasses and 2/3 cup of King Syrup (I sub Turkey Syrup for King) Always loved it - and still do. Now in Lititz PA, The Best Small Town in PA!

You can use 1/4 cup apple sauce instead of the egg to make it vegan, and add 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg to the flour/brown sugar to make it fancy.

Just a little feedback .. To those who complained about adding Baking Powder to this recipe... Ya need to apologize.... This recipe called for Baking Soda!! Big difference!! I will however admit it would have been a bit helpful to know of the type of molasses... you need a mild molasses.. Black strap is so rich it would make the pie overpowered!!

I added 1/2 tsp of ground clove to the boiling water then 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and the molasses and an egg when the mixture cooled off I though it was a little too much topping ( a little dry)..but I'm just a beginner. The flavor was fantastic though. Last time I had a major leak and the wet part leaked to the pie dish. This time I cut my shorting up finer for the crust…..no leaks. Sure not pretty but taste good to me.

My Shoo Fly Pie decided to fly itself right out of the pan! I used a 9" deep dish frozen crust and it just didn't hold it during the baking process. Thankfully I had the pie pan on a sheet tray or my freshly cleaned oven would have needed it again! Haven't tasted it yet, but it smells great and what didn't overflow looks good--glad it's not supposed to be going anywhere or I'd be disappointed with the other side! I'll try this again with my own pie crust and my bigger pan.

Don't forget a scoop of Vanilla ice cream on the warm pie.

I'm giving 5 stars to this just so maybe it gets read. Just here to ask the author to change the recipe so it is in a deep-dish plate. I bought a frozen 9-inch shell and the filling overflowed, especially after putting all of the flour mixture on top. It cannot physically fit in the pie tin. The molasses mix that ran out is smoking up my kitchen. This may end up being delicious, but you need to use a large enough pie crust.

Made the recipe as written...my Pennsylvaia Dutch husband highly approved it!

Easy and delicious. And it smells heavenly out of the oven!

Best ever. I love all recipes. Thank you.

OMG, perfect flavors! 😍

My go-to recipe from now on.

oh so good

I followed the recipe, but I ended up with shoofly soup. Any ideas on where I went wrong? The taste was good.

Too much for one pie,; not enough for two. Believe the posts that say to reduce the quantities, I ended up with nearly half of the topping extra. Reduce the Molasses mixture to 1 1/2 cups total and reduce the flour/brown sugar mixture by a third.

This pie is easy to make and very tasty! 👍 Do not skip the part that says to put the pie on a cookie sheet unless you would like to clean your oven after baking. 😬