Country V: America: Pennsylvania Dutch..sort of

 Well, today was supposed to be Pennsylvania Dutch day, but we had so many leftovers from the other countries that I decided to make it Leftover Day instead. But that certainly didn't mean that I couldn't make a Penn. Dutch desert, right? So, since I found out that my husband hadn't even heard of it, I decided make Shoo-fly Pie. I've never had it either, but at least I've heard of it. Well, I found this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/my-grandmas-shoo-fly-pie/Detail.aspx and began gathering my ingredients...which weren't many:

Right, so first you have to make your pie crust, well, unless you're being weird and using a store bought crust. But I always make my own because I'm allergic to that other stuff. ;) So the formula my mom taught me was 3:1 flour to shortening. Today I used 2 cups of flour and 2/3 cup shortening. Cut together the flour and shortening until it looks like this:

The secret to the crust being nice and flaky is having those medium sized chunks of shortening throughout. After you've got it to this stage, gradually add cold water until it becomes a nice, smooth dough. I used my fingers to do this, and it turned out amazing. Then you roll out your dough on a surface that has flour all over it. I use a pastry cloth for easier clean up.

And it just so happened that I had enough dough to make two pie crusts. Whoops. Well, since that mistake ;) happened, I just had to plan on making a pumpkin pie too. Darn.

I started on the Shoo-fly pie, and was happy to discover how simplistic it was. Mix together your molasses, 1 cup hot water and baking soda together. This was fun to do, because as I was stirring, some sort of groovy chemical thing started happening, and it got all fizzy. It was kind of awesome. Then add your egg to the mix and stir that up. Then dump that in your pie crust.

Then mix together the flour and brown sugar, and cut in the shortening until it gets all crumbly and what not. Then spread that on top of the molasses mixture in the pie pan.

Put it into a preheated 400 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. This is what it should look like when it's all done:

This pie was okay. Erich didn't care for it. It had a (obviously) very strong molasses flavor, and it wasn't very sweet. So, not awful, but I won't be making it again.
Now, this pumpkin pie, on the other hand, I know is delicious and I will probably make hundreds more of them before I die.
Ingredients:

Mix all your ingredients up together and dump it in your prepared pie crust.

Bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes.

 That easy. And it's amazingly, ridiculously yummy. And really not that terribly bad for you. Well, at least, until you add this element:

You guessed right. Homemade cool whip. I never, ever buy cool whip because it's so easy and much cheaper to make at home. Right, so whip the cream with an electric mixture (because if you use a whisk and elbow grease, it will take a long time and you will be tired at the end. Trust me on this one, folks) the heavy cream until it gets just a little thicker and frothy. Then dump in some powdered sugar until it's the sweetness you desire. Then whip it until it forms stiff peaks. (Yes, now I have the Devo song stuck in my head). Store it in an airtight container in the freezer.

Then, top your delicious pie with that delicious 'cool whip' and forget about life and enjoy that plate of total win you have before you.

Now back to reality: I learned that you will have a very messy kitchen to clean up if you make both of these pies at the same time.

And that's only half of my kitchen....


Pumpkin Pie
1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pie mix, plain pumpkin)
2 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
a dash allspice
1 cup milk
1 prepared 9-inch pie crust (1 cup flour to 1/3 cup shortening is good for one crust, just remember the 3:1 ratio)

Mix up all your ingredients and pour into prepared pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
(Be happy you got all these instructions ;) The recipe I copied from my mom goes like this: List of ingredients. 350. 45.   The end.

The recipe for the Shoo-fly Pie is linked above in the blog, but here it is again:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/my-grandmas-shoo-fly-pie/Detail.aspx