Mes amis! It has been far too long, but here we are back at it again. Today, 24 Fructidor, we celebrate sorghum. I’ve taken a traditional shoofly pie recipe and substituted the molasses for sorghum syrup. I had to order my sorghum syrup online and it just so happened that it was made by the Lancaster Amish – the very same folks who invented shoofly pie to begin with. Wikipedia and Atlas Obscura have the origin of the name of the pie as deriving from a popular molasses brand at the time, “Shoofly Molasses” which was named after Shoofly, the boxing mule, a locally popular circus attraction in the 1880s.

Shoofly Sorghum Pie 

For the crust

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup chilled water

For the filling 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp salt

1 stick butter

3/4 cup sorghum syrup

3/4 boiling water

1/2 tsp baking soda

For the crust, either by hand or in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and butter until only pea-sized pieces of butter remain. Add the cold water and mix until the mixture starts to come together. Roll out for a 9 inch pie tin. Heat the oven to 425.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt for the crumb topping. Cut in the butter with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the butter is in pea-sized pieces.

Bring 3/4 cup of water to a boil and then add in the sorghum syrup and baking soda. Whisk together and then pour the liquid mixture into the pie crust. Spoon the crumb topping over the liquid and brush the remaining edges of the pie crust with an egg wash, if you so desire. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 and then lower the heat to 350 and bake for 20 more minutes. Enjoy with ice cream or whipped cream!