Spiced Shoofly Pie

What on earth is a Shoofly pie, is the logical first question for anyone who is not an American. Well, it is an old Amish recipe that you will be pleased to know features neither shoes nor flies. It does taste amazing though and is quite a different sort of dessert, almost like a pecan pie without the pecans. It would work well cream or ice-cream too.

Ingredients

• 165g Gluten Free Flour
• 2 tsp Xantham Gum
• 2 tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ground Ginger
• 110g Margarine
• 55g Icing Sugar
• 1 Large Egg Yolk

For the Crumbs

• 150g Gluten Free Flour
  
• 2 tsp Xantham Gum
• 100g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
• 30g Margarine
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ground Ginger
• ⅛ tsp Ground Nutmeg

For the Filling

• ¾ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 180ml Boiling Water
• 110g Black Treacle
• 110g Golden Syrup
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Utensils

• 2 x Medium Sized Mixing Bowls
• Sieve
• Mixing Spoon
• Cling Film (Glad Wrap)
• Rolling Pin
• 23 x 2.5cm loose-bottomed flan tin
• Baking Parchment
• Baking Beans (or rice)
• Hand Whisk
• Medium Heatproof Bowl

Method

Make the Pastry

1. Sieve the flour, xantham gum, baking powder and spices together in the mixing bowl. Add the margarine and, using your fingers, rub the flour combination together with the margarine to form crumbs. Ensure that you have evenly sized crumbs, which are not holding any large margarine masses.
2. Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl and mix well until combined. Add the egg yolk and mix well. It should all come together into one big, slightly sticky dough ball. If you are used to making pastry then do not worry that this appears to be much softer, than you are used to.
3. Wrap the pastry ball in Cling-film/Glad-wrap and place it in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Heat the oven to 180°C
5. Butter the Flan Tin and line the base with baking parchment
6. Remove the pastry ball from the fridge and roll it out so that it is about 0.5cm thick. As it is very sticky, I find that it is best to do this by laying down a large piece of cling-film over your work-top, putting the dough on top of it and then covering it with another large piece of cling-film, then rolling it on top of this. This way the pastry neither sticks to the work surface (as you can just pull the cling-film off, nor does it stick to your rolling pin, which is also protected by the cling-film). Remove the cling-film and lay the rolled out pastry in the flan-tin. Do not worry if it breaks or does not cover it all, just patch up the breaks and ensure that the tin is completely covered with pastry, including pressing it into all the flutes then trim and neaten off the edges. Keep any remaining pastry in the fridge.
7. Prick the pastry base, lightly, all over with a fork and place back in the fridge for 10 minutes
8. Remove the pastry from the fridge, line it with scrunched up baking parchment, put the baking beans on top of this, spread them evenly and "bake it blind" for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment paper. If there are any cracks then patch these up with a little bit of the remaining raw dough, from the fridge. Bake it for a further 5-10 minutes or until it is starting to turn golden in colour. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool, completely, in its tin.
9. Lower the oven temperature to 170C

Make the Crumbs

1. In the second medium sized bowl, place the flour, xantham gum, brown sugar, margarine, spices and salt. Rub together using your fingertips to form a sandy, crumb-like consistency. Remove 50g and reserve for later use.

Make the Filling

1. Place the bicarbonate of soda into the medium heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Ensure that the water is actively boiling and you have not accidentally allowed it to cool. Add the treacle, syrup, egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until combined, Add the larger quantity of crumbs to the filling to combine. Pour the filling into the prepared pie crusts. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs over the top of the filling
2. Bake the pie, in the oven, for 40-45 minutes or until the filling puffs ups and starts to look dry. Allow to cool completely before serving.