Happy belated Pi day! Whole grain shoofly pie

I'm always surprised at how many people have never had shoofly pie.  Some people haven't even heard of it.  Which is too bad because the confection of my Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors is delicious.  In taste and texture, it's almost more of a coffee cake than a pie.  It's not overly sweet, and it's a great treat to have with tea in the middle of the day, and for that reason I decided to make it (very slightly) healthier by incorporating whole grain flours. 

Yep, that's the middle digits of pi on my pie plate.

First, a quick description of how it's made for uninitiated.  You start with a traditional pie crust (unbaked).  Next, you pour in a molasses-egg yolk-baking soda-hot water mixture.  And last, you pour a good amount of spiced crumb topping that is a little like a streusel topping but with a greater flour:butter ratio.  The crumbs sink into the molasses mixture, and as it bakes, it develops a gradient from nearly 100% molasses-y custard on to bottom to nearly 100% dry sugary crumbs on top.  This picture, taken a few days after baking, kind of shows the gradient, but it was hard to capture.

My recipe originated in one of my Mom's old cookbooks called the Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook.  I transcribed the recipe into my little recipe book years ago.  The few changes I've made: spelt flour instead of white flour,  the fillings are multiplied by 1.5 because my pi plate is pretty deep, and I use butter instead of shortening in the crumbs.  I was also pretty generous in rounding up the spices cause I like spices a lot.  The crust I used was not from the original recipe, but one I made and froze at Thanksgiving from Cook's Illustrated - side note: I actually froze this pie crust cause I wasn't convinced it was going to be any good!  It was too wet!  But it was wet because the crew at America's Test Kitchen used vodka instead of some of the water, which doesn't develop the gluten like water does, but makes the dough easier to work with.  I just couldn't believe it when the dough was so tacky, but it's an amazing innovation.  Last note, there are plenty of recipes out there for whole grain pie crusts, I'm sure they would work great in this application.  Onto my version of shoofly pie...

Ingredients
1 unbaked pie crust

2 egg yolks
0.75 c. molasses
10 fluid ozs. boiling water
1.5 t. baking soda

1.5 c. spelt flour
0.75 t. cinnamon
0.25 t. freshly grated nutmeg
0.25 t. ground ginger
0.25 t. ground cloves
0.75 c. brown sugar
3 T. butter, cold, cut into 0.25 inch chunks   

3.  Preheat oven to 400.  Roll out pie shell, form in pi(e) plate, and refrigerate until it's ready to fill.
1.  Beat egg yolks, then blend in the molasses.
4.  Dissolve baking soda in boiling water.  Slowly, while whisking, incorporate the water-soda into the egg-molasses mixture.  Set aside.
1.  Combine the remaining dry ingredients, including brown sugar.
5.  Add butter and work into crumbs with your fingers.  Crumbs will be very dry.
9.  Pour liquid into pie shell and top with crumbs.
2.  Bake at 400 for 10 min.
6.  Reduce to 325 and bake for another 35-40 min.

Anyone catch the secret code in the recipe?  Happy π day!

Rosewater walnut shortbread

I haven't been very experimental with dinner lately.  Mostly just cooking from my repertoire and sticking with easy quick stuff as I've been really busy.  And I was out of town all last week for a conference in what might be the Mecca of food towns: Portland, Oregon.  Drool... I ate some really great meals there.

But I was craving something sweet and buttery today, so I made some shortbread.  Shortbread is one of favorite kinds of cookies.  It's so simple and good.  I used the basic recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook and will probably tweak it a few more times before submitting it to a cookie contest on Michael Ruhlman's blog.  So if you see me in the next few weeks, you can expect some shortbread.  And if you have any suggestions, let me know!  The changes are that I put in some flavors that are relatively new to me - the main one being some rosewater that I picked up at Savory Spice Shop... I think it goes great with the simple, buttery sweetness.  I also made a halfhearted attempt to incorporate some whole grain and will likely play around with this a little more.  Also thinking that chilling, rolling, and using cookie cutters will improve appearance, and that pine nuts might be better than walnuts.

As written this makes about 12 cookies.  Which I could probably finish off in two days.

1/3 c. walnut pieces (or chopped walnut halves)
1 stick of butter, softened
1/4 c. sugar, ultrafine baker's sugar is best
1 t. rosewater
a scant 1/2 t. vanilla
a pinch of salt
1/2 c. white flour
1/4 c. semolina flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour.

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Put nuts on a baking sheet, and bake for 7-9 minutes, till very fragrant. 
2.  With a fork or wooden spoon combine the butter, sugar, rosewater, vanilla, and salt.  Mash till well combined.
3.  Sift in the flours.  Stir in till a loose dough forms.  It's okay if it's not one cohesive ball.
4.  Press into a rectangle on a baking sheet (make sure it's cool, if you re-use the one from toasting the walnuts) that is about 1/3 inch thick.
5.  Press the walnuts into the dough.
6.  Bake for 15 or more minutes, until the edges are starting to brown. 
7.  Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack, and let cool for 10 minutes.
8.  While still warm, use a sharp knife to cut into desired cookie shapes.  Long "fingers" are traditional.
9.  Try to prevent yourself from eating them while they're still warm.  Fail miserably.

Rosemary ginger snaps

I'm writing this from the Albany airport (free wifi, thanks Google), in the throes of Christmas cookie withdrawal. I have eaten soooooo many Christmas cookies in the last ten days. To ease withdrawal systems (and cause Mom asked for it), I am posting one of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes. It comes from a King Arthurs cookbook, I think one called "the Baker's Companion" or something like that.

It makes 10 - 12 dozen, and can be halved. I love the combination of rosemary in these cookies, and go towards the higher end of the 4-6 t. spectrum.

Ingredients
* 1.5 cups, (3 sticks) butter, brought to room temperature
* 2 cups sugar
* 2 eggs
* 0.5 cup dark unsulphured molasses
* 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 4 – 6 teaspoons rosemary, crushed or powdered
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 0.5 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* granulated sugar, I like a raw brown sugar (like sugar in the raw), or you can use red or green colored sugar to make them more Christmasy.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, or prepare the dough a day ahead and chill before baking.

In a large, standup mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one a time, and continue to beat in until each egg is mixed well. Add the molasses and continue to beat until well combined.

Sift together the flour, soda, salt, rosemary, ginger, cloves and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Roll nickel-sized pieces of dough into balls between the palms of your hands. Then roll them in granulated sugar and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.