Today I'll be discussing some cuisine of my people--shoofly pie, a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dessert. Ha! I'm just kidding, poking fun at my facial hair choice of large porkchop sideburns, which resemble the no-mustache-but-full-beard arrangement common amongst the Amish and Mennonite men. For the record, I do have some German ancestry, but I haven't been able to identify any Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.
First off, most people assume that Pennsylvania Dutch just means the Amish and Mennonites. Which is an exaggeration--many members of this group are more modernish Lutherans, or German Reformed. Meaning they don't dress only in black, avoid most modern technology, and necessarily be pacifists, etc. Moving on, the history of shoofly pie isn't definitive. Some claim it's a dish created by Pennsylvania German immigrants in the late 1700's or early 1800's, based on what ingredients (molasses, brown sugar, flour, lard, egg, spices) were less perishable, more available. However, food historian William Woys Weaver has his own theory, which he covers in his 2013 book, "As American as Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine." Weaver says the roots of this pie were molasses cakes developed for the U.S.A.'s Centennial celebration, in 1876. By the 1880's bakers had added a pie shell to enclose the dessert, to make it easier and less messy to eat. Other possible precursors are a treacle tart (a pie made from syrup, basically) and Jenny Lind cake, a gingerbread-based cake. And then there's the name. Most people think that it's literal, that bakers working with outdoor ovens would have had to chase away flies attracted by the sweet molasses of the pie. However, Weaver's explanation is more elaborate, and to my mind, more amusing. He claims that in the 1870's and 1880's there was a popular traveling circus act which featured a boxing mule named Shoofly (perhaps after the folk song?). Shoofly was trained to stand up on his hind legs, and wear boxing gloves on his front hoofs, and he would compete against a horse. (Left unsaid is if his opponent wore boxing gloves too, or stood on its hind legs, etc.) Anyway, because this mule was so popular, various food companies were inspired to name brands after him, so there was soon a Shoofly molasses, Shoofly flour, etc. Since some of these were ingredients in the pie, folks started using the brand name as a title for the dessert. (Of course, proof in the form of advertisements, or surviving Shoofly brand food containers would help settle this debate. Maybe they're in Weaver's book.)
Shoofly pie (also rendered shoe fly pie, or shoo-fly pie) is an interesting concoction. It's basically a coffee or crumb cake atop a molasses layer, in a pie shell. There are two major types--wet bottom or dry bottom. The former has a moist, gooey molasses base, while the latter is dryer, and more cake-like. A Montgomery pie is a cousin to shoofly, only it has a buttermilk top, and lemon juice added to the bottom. Sometimes shoofly pie has a chocolate icing layer on top, too. And no matter how it's made, the traditional serving method is warmed, with whipped cream on top. Aside from being a dessert, it's also commonly eaten at breakfast, washed down with black coffee.
Normally, I'm very specific about where I got the food I'm reviewing, and when. Alas, I'm unable to do so this time. I had shoofly pie for the first time when I was only about 8 or 9 years old, and I think it was homemade. Since, I've had it a couple of times as an adult, from restaurants as I recall. I believe I sampled the wet bottom type, as I seem to remember a moister, pecan pie-ish texture to it. I do clearly remember enjoying it, which makes sense due to my sweet tooth. Crumb cake is good, as is molasses, so mixing the two together is a winning combination. I should have taken advantage the last time I was in Pennsylvania Dutch territory a couple of years ago, but unfortunately I didn't. All in all, I certainly recommend shoofly pie, especially to fans of molasses. But it probably goes without saying that it should be only an occasional treat, because of its sugar content. And I wouldn't recommend it to diabetics, for obvious reasons. If you'd like to read more about Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, you can check out my post on mincemeat pie (January 13, 2017), or my post on Amish cup cheese (April 22, 2017). Lastly, although whose version of this food is clearly subjective, many credit the Dutch Haven bakery in Soudersburg, Pennsylvania (near the town of Lancaster), as making the best commercial shoofly pie.
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