A and I spent Wednesday afternoon making pies and Christmas wreaths. We made the same maple cream custard tart as last year, with no adjustments and no problems. Knowing that others were bringing more traditional pies, we also decided to have fun and make a strong, sugary molasses pie with gingerbread spices. I had a frozen Whole Foods g-free pie crust I wanted to use, although really I think this would be much better with the almond meal crust we all use for the maple cream tart.
After doing some googling, and coming up with a few recipes on forums, we came up with this:
Melt 1/2 cup butter, then simmer with 1/2 cup of blackstrap molasses, 1 cup of white sugar, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Stir constantly. Remove from heat and slowly beat in 3 eggs, 1 T vanilla, 1/4 tsp. salt, and nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, and ground cloves to taste.
Pour filling into a pie shell and cook at 400 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 25 more minutes.
Ultimately, I should have trusted my flavor instincts and added another 1/2 cup of sugar and had a heavier hand with the spices. The molasses taste was very strong. To soften this a bit, I piped a thin layer of homemade maple whipped cream (1 cup heavy cream, 3 T maple syrup)over the top. The molasses lovers at our table really enjoyed small slivers of the pie, especially with coffee and cream. The texture-soft and gooey-was beautiful, as was the color. If you do want to make it though, I'd definitely recommend upping the sugar or reducing the molasses to 1/4 cup and adding 1/4 cup honey? If anyone tries it, please let us know!
I just bought molasses this week for some baked beans and want recipes to use it up with. Might have to try this one out. I will probably try reducing the molasses and adding honey since I have some great Wyoming honey from the ranch.
ReplyDeleteI thought the pie was delicious, it just had a very distinctive taste. I do agree that the changes would improve it, though. I'm excited to try it again sometime! And I will be enjoying a small slice of the leftovers with my coffee in the morning. :)
ReplyDeletethat sounds really good! I substituted half agave nectar for molasses in a muffin recipe once, I wonder if that would work for the pie?
ReplyDeleteYou know it's funny, I found it actually mellowed out by day 2 and was delicious. I do think reducing the molasses by a bit would still be good...agave or honey or brown rice syrup would probably work. It could be a bit runnier with agave, though. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI've made this twice with your recommended changes and it is INCREDIBLE! Perfect with a cup of coffee or black tea.
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