Pigsfly Pie!

I’ve been talking about it for months, now I’ve finally done it: I’m calling it “Pigsfly Pie”…and it’s awesome.

If you’ve not run into it before, there’s a classic Pennsylvania “Dutch” recipe called “Shoofly Pie“, which is more or less a dense molasses cake in a pie crust. It’s quite good…but I’ve improved on it. As the name implies the secret ingredient is the semi-official food of the Internet…Bacon.

Here’s the secret recipe:

Dry(ish) Stuff:
• About 155g all-purpose flour
• About 28g (2 Tablespoons) cold unsalted butter
• about 114g “dark brown” sugar
• about 300mg (around 1/8-1/4 tsp) salt
• about 10 slices of crunchy cooked bacon, finely chopped.

Wet(ish) stuff
• About 3/4 teaspoon (Google says this is about 3.6g) baking soda
• About 177g (3/4 cup) of boiling water
• About 128g (4.5 ounces) of Maple Syrup
• About 115g (about 4 ounces) Blackstrap Molasses
• About 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract
• One whole beaten egg

Oh, yeah, and:
• A 9″ radius pie crust

Processing:
1. If you’re using a frozen pie crust, thaw it then poke holes in it with a fork and bake it at about 200°C (around 400°F) for about 10 minutes to prepare it for the wet filling.
2. Mix all of the “dry” stuff besides the bacon together well – I actually used a potato masher to thoroughly mash together the butter/sugar/flour until it was homogenous. Then, take out about a quarter-cup worth of the mix and set it aside as a topping, then mix the chopped bacon into the rest. (edit 20100602 to remove the extra “until”…)
3. Put the baking soda in a bowl, and pour the boiling water on it.
4. Mix in the syrup, molasses, and vanilla, and stir well.
5. Beat the egg, then carefully mix it vigorously in (hopefully the liquid will have cooled sufficiently that it won’t curdle)
6. Quickly mix the main portion of the dry stuff with this wet stuff. Small chunks will be no big deal. The texture should be roughly similar to waffle or pancake batter.
7. Pour this into the pie crust. A typical “deep dish” crust will leave some room left over. A “regular” pie crust will be filled to the top and leave you with a few tablespoons left over. Don’t worry about filling the crust to the very top – it tends to harden up as it expands so it doesn’t overflow in my experience.
8. Sprinkle the about-a-quarter-cup of dry stuff that you saved over the top
9. Bake 40-45 minutes at 175°C (about 350°F)
10. Let it cool at least an hour before cutting
11. Eat with an optional topping of whipped cream.
12. Make ecstatic “MMMMmmmmmm” noises in appreciation of my culinary genius.

Next time I make it, I’ll probably use a deep-dish crust, then float pecan halves all over the top before sprinkling on the topping and baking…

All Hail Bacon!