I noticed that lexus is playing that old song on it’s commericals and I just wondered if any of the teemings knew what those two items where exactly? If so, you got a recipe? I might just try them on for thanksgiving.
Dinah Shore? Sounds like one of hers, that she played on her talk show.
Google reports 474 recipes for shoo-fly pie, and 187 for apple pan dowdy. Dig in!
Found lots of recipes for these at http://www.google.com
Looks like shoo fly pie is like pecan pie without the pecans – kinda like molasses pudding in a crust.
The apple thing – sort of like an apple upside down cake.
So, you cook, aha? And not just in the musical sense?
I have heard that Shoo-Fly-Pie is a real pie. It’s made with molasses(sp?) or honey and is really, really sweet and sticky attracting flies and causing you to have to shoo them away from it.
Apple Pan Dowdy is a mystery - I’m sure my mom would know.
Mostly good on the BBQ grill. I am limited however. Thanks you guys for doing my research for me. I owe you one. 
I guess my post was a little late
:o
So I have a question what is the name of the song from the commercial and who sung it?
Aaaaaggggghhhhhh!!!
The title of this thread has triggered this song running through my mind incessantly! I curse the commercial that brought it into my conscious as an accessible reference point! Aaaaagggghhhhh!!! again.
That said, they sound like perfectly swell desserts.
As I was taught, shoo-fly-pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch (not Southern) concotion made NOT TO BE EATEN. The idea was to make it so sugary and fragrant that the flies would leave your other dishes alone.
This also rmeinds me of when I was little and my mom would use any leftover crust to make a simple custard pie out of cinnamon & sugar & milk. I always liked that pie better that the main pie.
Shoo Fly Pie is Pennsylvania Dutch. German, actually. It is outrageously sweet, has lots of butter, too. Just enough crust to hold it together. You are definitely supposed to eat it. Wet bottom, and dry bottom are the prevalent styles, one significantly gooier than the other.
Apple Pan Dowdy is a sort of semi biscuit crust pie without all that obsessive concern over whether the filling is inside, or outside the crust. A bit higher in moisture than Apple pie, too. Serve it with whipped cream on top. Lots better than Shoo Fly Pie, by the way.
Tris
Take it from a genuine Pennsylvania German: shoo-fly pie is very definitely meant to be eaten, in fact it is the highlight of a good Sunday dinner. Also, the dry bottom type is an abomination, best fed to unwelcome house guests and unsuspecting tourists.
Here’s a recipe for a proper (i.e. wet-bottom) shoo-fly pie:
Make a pie crust as you normally do. Don’t bake it yet, but set the oven to 350F.
In a largish bowl, cut the following ingredients together to make course crumbs:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening or butter
In another bowl, place 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Add 3/4 cup boiling water, and immediately add 1 cup dark molasses. Stir quickly until combined, and then immediately pour into the pie crust. He who hesitates will have a sticky mess to clean up. Top with the crumbs you made above, and bake for 30-40 minutes.
This is very good on its own, though my dear Norskies seem to like it with vanilla whipped cream on top.
I’m descended from Pennsylvania Germans and shoo-fly pie, along with Lebanon bologna and dried corn, is one of the staples of good down-home eating. Yum. I always liked the Turkey Hill ice cream commercial where they mention “going to Nana’s house for chicken and dumplings and shoo-fly pie.” Sounds familiar.
Our question is, why does Lexus have people in countries other than the US singing this song? Relevance??
I thought the lyric was “apple pan johnny”. My dictionary has an entry for johnny cake which defines it as a “flat, thin corn bread baked on a griddle”. This would lead me to believe it is corn bread with apples.
John (sometimes called Johnny, but not a corn bread)
Taken from this site, the lyrics:
My condolences to everyone who, like myself, will now be singing this all day long.
Shoo fly pie is definately meant to be eaten.
(frequently for breakfast… you’ve got to love the Pennsylvania dutch) It is extremely sweet (thus the name) and recipes abound on almost any food site… I’d post mine, but it makes 3 dozen 9 inch pies… which is proably a bit more than your interested in (it doesn’t scale down well either).
Apple Pan Dowdy is a baked apple dessert with crumbly stuff on the top kinda like apple brown betty.
the Two Fat Ladies made it on one of their shows, so I’m sure you could get a recipe from foodtv.com .
Yummy
now I’m hungry
-pandora
Dinah Shore?!?! My sense of rightness and order in the world is seriously challenged, because I actually think the
rendition of the song on the commercial is hot. I love those small jazz-swing combos. But I always thought Dinah Shore was a drag.
In any case, IMO the background singers are almost certainly
African-American, so I thought the lead singer was, too, and
that the band was one of those wonderful R&B groups, say
around 1955.
“SHOO FLY PIE AND APPLE PAN DOWDY
(words by Sammy Gallop; music by Guy Wood)”
Thanks for clearing that up Gazoo. I guess I need to get my hearing checked out.
John (still sometimes called Johnny, but never dowdy)
So what’s the difference between apple pan dowdy and apple cobbler?
And where did they come up with those names?
The problem is… I’ve made up a couple of slightly naughty lines, and this song is playing over and over in my head… 