Shoofly pie

Shoofly pie is a special kind of American pie that uses sweet molasses. It is a favorite in the food from the Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine region. Many groups, like the Moravian, Mennonite, and Amish people, enjoy this pie.

The name "shoo-fly" came from a brand of molasses that was popular in the United States in the late 1800s. Some think this pie might be related to the Jenny Lind pie, which is a soft gingerbread pie. It might have begun as a molasses crumb cake among the Pennsylvania Dutch around the 1880s. Originally, people ate it as a breakfast food with hot coffee.

Later, after the Civil War, the way we make shoo-fly pie changed. With new tools like cast iron cookware and stoves, it became easier to make a pie crust. This led to the modern version of shoo-fly pie, which is a crumb cake served inside a pie crust.

Description

Shoo-fly pie is like a crumb cake baked inside a pie crust. It is made mostly with molasses, brown sugar, and water. Putting the cake in a pie crust made it easier for people to eat with their hands long ago.

There are two kinds of shoo-fly pie: wet-bottom and dry-bottom. The dry-bottom kind bakes until it is fully set, giving it a cake-like texture all the way through. The wet-bottom kind looks like cake on top but has a sticky middle. Both types of recipes appeared in the early 1900s, and the dry version works well for dipping in coffee.

History

Shoo-fly pie began as a simple molasses cake called centennial cake in 1876. People made it to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It wasn’t made before the American Civil War.

In the 1880s, people added a crust to the cake. This made it easier to eat with coffee without needing plates and forks. An earlier treat called Jenny Lind pie was a kind of gingerbread cake. It was named after a famous Swedish opera star, Jenny Lind, after her tour of America.

Because shoo-fly pie uses molasses but no eggs, experts think it was often made in winter. This was when chickens didn’t lay many eggs and molasses wouldn’t ferment. The use of baking powder shows it was created after the Civil War, in the 1870s. Pennsylvania Dutch bakers started using this ingredient.

Variations

A Montgomery pie is similar to a shoo-fly pie, but it uses lemon juice in the bottom layer. Treacle tart is another kind of pie, and its filling is made from light treacle.

Name

The name "shoo-fly pie" comes from a brand of molasses called Shoo-fly Molasses from Philadelphia. This name was used in the 1880s and first appeared in print after World War I. The molasses brand got its name from a famous circus animal in Pennsylvania called "Shoo-fly the Boxing Mule". This mule may have been named after an old song called "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me".

In the Pennsylvania Dutch language, shoo-fly pie is known as Melassich Riwwelboi or Melassichriwwelkuche, which means molasses crumb cake. Before it was called shoo-fly pie, it was known as molasses crumb pie or soda rivvel cake, where rivels are small lumps of food. The pie was even mentioned in a song called "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy", which became popular in the 1940s thanks to Dinah Shore.