Molasses | Chickens in the Road

Posts Tagged ‘molasses’

Jun
9

A pandowdy is one of a family of old-fashioned deep-dish desserts, known by quaint names such as slumps, grunts, buckles, duffs, crumbles, or sonkers, made with seasonal fruits, that are all variations of a cobbler, and all of which came to America with the Colonists. Like Shoo-Fly Pie, pandowdy (the name is believed to refer to its “dowdy” appearance) is made with simple, primarily non-perishable, ingredients that were easy to keep on hand. You can make a pandowdy out of different fruits, but it’s traditionally made using apples sweetened with molasses (or brown sugar). The crust is a biscuit-type dough which can be baked on top, broken up near the end of the baking time and poked (”dowdied”) into the fruit, or even baked on the bottom, inverting the dish before serving. (Take your pick!) I’m fascinated with old-fashioned desserts, so expect to see more of them here. Apple Pandowdy is quick and easy, and baking it will make you feel like an early American settler, so go grab some apples and bake it today!

How to make Apple Pandowdy:

Step One–
3 cups sliced, peeled apples
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Core, slice, and peel three cups of apples and place in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup of molasses.

Add nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.

Butter a one-and-a-half quart baking dish and dump in the apple mixture. Bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

Step Two–
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Melt butter. Add egg, milk, and sugar. Stir well.

Add flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix together.

Spread evenly over baked apple mixture. Place back in the 350-degree oven for an additional 30 minutes.

Ohhhh my……….

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

When Georgia asked me to bring an extra dessert to the big party, I baked this at the very last minute. It really is that fast–and that good!

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Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink

Tags: apples, molasses

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May
29

If you’ve been to a country church supper, you’ve probably been exposed to Shoo-Fly Pie even if you had no idea what it was. Or maybe that’s just me who was eating Shoo-Fly Pie for a couple years before I figured it out. It’s a charming, old-fashioned name for a pie, and it’s certainly one that never made an appearance in the kitchen of my childhood suburban home. And while you country people are laughing at me, I know some of the rest of you are saying, “What IS Shoo-Fly Pie?”

Basically, it’s a molasses and brown sugar pie with a crumb topping. Its origins date back to treacle tarts in medieval Europe, but it gained popularity in America as settlers arrived with what staples could outlast a trip across the Atlantic by boat and intrepid cooks made do with what they had. Among these settlers were what became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, who were major pie-lovers (like me! I am a PIE LOVER and why I don’t have Pennsylvania Dutch blood in my veins, I don’t know) and they continued to make do every late winter and early spring as food supplies ran low and Shoo-Fly Pie became their signature dish. Why it’s called Shoo-Fly Pie is debatable, but most likely because during Colonial times, baking was done outdoors and the sweet molasses filling bursting out of this pie attracted flies.

And whatever. It’s good pie!! My kids will eat it. In fact, I’m lucky if I get one slice, and I have all the ingredients on-hand all the time, no special trips to the store. Which, when you live in the boonies, is a major consideration. And, wow, don’t you just love the name of this pie? Can you live another day without getting to say you are baking a Shoo-Fly Pie?

Shoooooo-Fly Pie. Just try saying it out loud a couple times. It’ll make your day all sparkly.

How to make Shoo-Fly Pie:

Filling–
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg

In a medium-size bowl, combine dark corn syrup, molasses, boiling water, and soda. Scoop out a 1/2 cup of the corn syrup and molasses mixture into a small bowl. Add egg and whisk together then dump back into larger bowl with the whole corn syrup/molasses mixture.

Topping–
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons shortening
2/3 cup firmly-packed dark brown sugar

Using a pastry cutter, blend flour, shortening, and brown sugar into coarse crumbs.

Mix 1 cup of the crumbs into the prepared bowl of corn syrup/molasses filling, reserving the rest of the crumbs to top the pie.

Pour corn syrup/molasses mixture into one unbaked single-crust Foolproof Pie Crust shell. Evenly sprinkle reserved crumbs on top. I get all obsessed trying to spread the crumbs out evenly on top of the pie.

Bake on lowest oven rack in a preheated 400-degree oven for 25 minutes. Let cool to room temperature or chill it. Serve with whipped cream. Yum!!