Schadenfreude Pie (Insert Maniacal Laughter Here)

Wikipedia defines Schadenfreude (pronounced shah-den-froy-da) as  a feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail or suffer misfortune. It’s a dark and heavy emotion, which can come in quite handy when attending the 50th birthday celebration of a friend:) I’m not a jerk, I’m just not 50 yet (but almost).  This is more of a savory pie, both dark and bittersweet, with quite a bit of heft. It’s both dense and heavy.  Just like Schadenfreude. I attribute this pie to John Scalzi over at Whatever. The original posting is from 2006 and sent along to me by Alicia:) Thank you.

The crust:

Pre-made 9 or 10 inch graham cracker pie crust. I recommend 10 inch as you will have leftover filling if you choose the 9 inch crust.

Dark, heavy, bittersweet and tasty. Suffer, you!

Dark, heavy, bittersweet and tasty. Suffer, you!

The filling:

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks

3 large eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 splashes Kahlua or other coffee liqueur

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. In a large mixing bowl add melted butter, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well. Melt chocolate and blend into syrup mixture. Add eggs and coffee liqueur; blend until mixture has smooth consistency. Pour mixture into your pie crust. Smile in sinister fashion.

Place on center rack in oven, bake for about 45-50 minutes. At 45 minutes, poke pie with butter knife. If it comes out clean, pie is ready; otherwise give it five more minutes.

Once pie is out of oven, let it set about 20 minutes if you are desiring to eat right away. When I took it out of the oven, it actually looked like it was breathing. It freaked me out a little.

John’s rec (and I agree) is that this be eaten in small slices. It’s really rich and very heavy, and you’ll regret eating a large slice. And this would make me happy:) Have with a scoop of ice cream or a large glass of cold milk for maximum joy.

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Pie #18 – My Grandma’s Shoo-Fly Pie

Tonight I tried my hand at Shoo-Fly pie. A colleague from work recommended (or dared) me to make it. I had never heard of it:)

It’s signature (heh) ingredient is molasses. I always thought molasses was thicker. Like honey. I was surprised that the consistency was more liquid. When I poured the filling into the pie shell, It was like  a soup. The recipe describes it as a layer to the crumble. It didn’t strike me as a very clearly defined layer.

When the pies were baking, the molasses aroma coming from the oven wasn’t pleasant. I thought something was burning. When I checked on the pies, a lot of the filling had bubbled over. The heat pushed a lot of the filling over the top, into the pan, with the crumble  “layer.” making a gooey looking mess in the pan underneath. From a presentation perspective this one didn’t come out well at all. And that’s mild. But I was really surprised by the taste. It was addicting. I chowed.

The crust!:

1 (9 inch) pie shell

The filling!:

1 cup molasses

3/4 cup hot water

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup shortening

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. To make the bottom layer: In a medium bowl combine molasses, hot water, and baking soda. Stir well. Whisk in beaten egg. Pour liquid mixture into pie shell.  It should come up about 3/4 of the way in the pie shell.

To make crumb topping: In a medium bowl combine flour and brown sugar. Mix well, then cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle on top of molasses layer. Sprinkle would be the operative word. I think I put too much on the top. Way too much.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake an additional 30 minutes.

I wanted to bring one in to work. Not gonna happen. They look bad. And taste really good when warm. Not so much when cooled.