{"id":93247,"date":"2023-07-26T08:45:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T12:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=93247"},"modified":"2023-07-26T08:45:47","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T12:45:47","slug":"have-you-tried-shoofly-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/have-you-tried-shoofly-pie.html","title":{"rendered":"Have You Tried Shoofly Pie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega searches old newspapers for recipes for a treat she discovered in Pennsylvania: shoofly pie. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

During this month, I traveled to Pennsylvania to teach at a genealogical institute. I had never been to Pennsylvania, so aside from the excitement of exploring a new-to-me state, I wanted to try some regional foods not available on the West Coast. Number one on my list of foods to try? Shoofly pie.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Pennsylvania Dutch style, wet-bottom shoofly pie. Credit: Syounan Taji; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shoofly Pie: A Short History<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is shoofly pie? Simply described, it\u2019s a molasses-based pie. Molasses is historically an important ingredient in the United States as a sweetener. Today it\u2019s not used as much, and depending on where you live, it might be something you rarely if ever see except as an ingredient in a holiday gingerbread. (1)<\/p>\n

According to a history of the pie on the Gastro Obscura website, its origins can be found in an 1876 cake called \u201cCentennial Cake.\u201d The ingredients were used by Amish women to make a pie that was served in one of two ways.<\/p>\n

Using the same set of ingredients, these women developed two styles of shoofly pie: wet-bottom and dry-bottom. Amish women made the wet-bottom version by filling a pie shell with sweet molasses, which soaks into the crust and creates a molten, \u201cwet\u201d bottom layer upon baking. The result is a bit like sticky toffee pudding. In a dry-bottom shoofly pie, the baker alternates layering brown sugar crumb with molasses filling. The equally distributed ratio of wet and dry bakes into something like a pie-crusted coffee cake. Both versions are finished with buttery, brown sugar crumbs. (2)<\/p>\n

While shoofly pie is uniquely a Pennsylvania Dutch creation, there are other molasses pies found in the U.S. Rossi Anastopoulo wrote in her book Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies<\/em>: \u201cMany nineteenth-century Southern cookbooks included recipes for pure molasses pie that reflected its particular popularity in the region\u2026\u201d (3)<\/p>\n

Shoofly Pie Recipes<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not near Pennsylvania and want to try shoofly pie, you can find a number of recipes in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As mentioned before, the main ingredient in shoofly pie is molasses. This 1906 recipe is fairly simple and shows the few ingredients needed to make the pie, but like many early recipes it\u2019s lacking directions for exactly how to cook it.<\/p>\n

\"Shoofly<\/a>
Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 19 April 1906, page 109<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another characteristic of shoofly pie is the crumb topping \u2013 but it can be omitted, as this 1908 recipe indicates.<\/p>\n

\"Shoofly<\/a>
Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 21 November 1908, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As mentioned, shoofly pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch creation \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t stop recipe writers from putting their own spin on the pie. This \u201cCalifornia\u201d recipe printed in a Dallas, Texas, newspaper includes dates as an ingredient. Why are dates called \u201cCalifornian?\u201d Dates are grown in the Southern California desert and can be purchased whole or in various forms (including date sugar) from growers in that area.<\/p>\n

\"Shoofly<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 15 December 1960, page 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This writer in the Plain Dealer<\/em> admits that she had heard a song about the pie but didn\u2019t realize it really existed. She states that there are two kinds of shoofly pie, one that is \u201cdry\u201d and one that has a \u201cdamp zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 9 October 1966, page 245<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shoofly<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 9 October 1966, page 245<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Genealogy tip:<\/em><\/strong> In some cases, such as with some recipes, the keyword you are searching may be area or region specific. The earliest mentions of this recipe are in Pennsylvania newspapers. It\u2019s not until much later that I started seeing shoofly pie recipes in other state newspapers.<\/p>\n

As I continued looking for pie recipes, I did find another food column that included not only dry and damp recipes but also a cake-type recipe. Over time, shoofly pie recipes found in newspapers were diverse and not limited to one version.<\/p>\n

\"Shoofly<\/a>
Houston Post (Houston, Texas), 9 September 1956, page 174<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shoofly<\/a>
Houston Post (Houston, Texas), 9 September 1956, page 174<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Have You Tried Shoofly Pie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the warnings I\u2019ve read about shoofly pie is that it\u2019s really sweet (and that sweetness is occasionally credited as the origin of its rather unusual name \u2013 so sweet that it attracts flies, and you have to shoo them away \u2013 but several alternative explanations also exist), so I was surprised that I didn\u2019t find it extremely sweet compared to other fruit-based pies.<\/p>\n

Have you tried shoofly pie? Do you or a family member make it? I\u2019d love to hear about your recipes in the comments below.<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> slice of shoofly pie with ice cream. Credit: Good N Plenty; Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

__________________<\/p>\n

(1) Anastopoulo, Rossi. \u201cSweet Land of Liberty. A History of American in 11 Pies.\u201d New York: Abrams Press, 2022, p. 63.
\n(2) \u201cShoofly Pie,\u201d Gastro Obscura (https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/foods\/shoofly-pie-amish<\/a>: accessed 21 July 2023).
\n(3) Anastopoulo, Rossi. \u201cSweet Land of Liberty. A History of American in 11 Pies.\u201d New York: Abrams Press, 2022, p. 65.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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