Shoofly pie is a type of American pie made with

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

associated with

Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch. According to one writer, "If you had to make a short list of regions in the United States where regional food is actually consumed on a daily basis, the la ...

. While shoo-fly pie has been a staple of Moravian, Mennonite and Amish foodways, there is scant evidence concerning its origins, and most of the folktales concerning the pie are legendary, including the persistent legend that the name comes from flies being attracted to the sweet filling. The name "shoo-fly pie" was borrowed from a brand of molasses that was popular in parts of the US during the late 19th century. Possibly related to the

Jenny Lind Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (6 October 18202 November 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and a ...

pie (a soft

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp as ...

pie), it may have originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1880s as molasses

crumb cake Streuselkuchen (; "crumb cake"), also known in English-speaking countries as crumb cake, is a cake made of yeast dough covered with a sweet crumb topping referred to as streusel. The main ingredients for the crumbs are sugar, butter, and flour, ...

, and is sometimes called ''molasses crumb pie''. It was traditionally served not as a dessert pie, but as a breakfast food with hot coffee. The modern form of shoofly pie as a crumb cake served in

pie crust Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken ...

was a post-Civil War innovation, when

cast iron cookware Heavy-duty cookware made of cast iron is valued for its heat retention, durability, ability to maintain high temperatures for longer time duration, and non-stick cooking when properly seasoned. Seasoning is also used to protect bare cast iron fr ...

and stoves made

more accessible for home cooks.

Description

Small_slice_of_molasses_shoofly_pie_2022

Shoofly pie has been described as a

baked in a

. The primary ingredients of the filling are

, brown sugar, and water. Serving the cake in pie crust made it easier for people to eat it with their hands in the 19th century. It comes in two different versions: wet-bottom and dry-bottom. The dry-bottom version is baked until fully set and results in a more cake-like consistency throughout. The wet-bottom version is set like cake at the top where it was mixed in with the crumbs, but the very bottom is a stickier, gooier custard-like consistency. Recipes differentiating between wet and dry versions appeared in the early 20th century; the dry version was suitable for dunking in a cup of coffee.

History

Shoofly pie began as a crust-less molasses cake called

Centennial cake {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...

in 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. There is no evidence of it being made before the American Civil War. In the 1880s, home bakers added a crust to make it easier to eat alongside a cup of coffee in the morning, without plates and forks. Precursors include Jenny Lind pie, a type of

cake that was named for the famed Swedish opera star, Jenny Lind after her tour of America in the 1850s. Because shoofly pie traditionally contains molasses but no eggs, historians conclude that it was typically baked during the winter, when chickens laid fewer eggs and molasses could be stored in the cold weather without fear of it fermenting. The use of baking powder places its invention firmly after the Civil War and in the 1870s, when Pennsylvania Dutch bakers began using baking powder.

Variations

A Montgomery pie is similar to a shoofly pie, except lemon juice is used in the bottom layer. Treacle tart is a pie with a filling made from light treacle.

Name

The modern name comes from a particular brand of molasses from Philadelphia, Shoofly Molasses. The name shoofly pie was used in the 1880s, but its first appearance in print was after World War I. The Shoofly brand of molasses was named after a popular circus animal that toured in Pennsylvania in the 19th century, Shoofly the Boxing Mule. The

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

, in turn, may have been named after a song that became popular half a century before: "

Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me ''Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me'' or ''Shew! fly, don't bother me'' is a minstrel show song from the 1860s that has remained popular since that time. It was sung by soldiers during the Spanish–American War of 1898, when flies and the yellow fever mo ...

". The pie is mentioned in the song "

Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" is a popular song about Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, with music by Guy Wood and words by Sammy Gallop. It was published in 1945. Recording history The song became a major hit in 1946 both for Dinah Shore and the St ...

," popularized by Dinah Shore in the 1940s. Shoofly pie is called ''Melassich Riwwelboi'' or ''Melassichriwwelkuche'' (molasses crumb cake) in the

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

language. Before its modern name became popular during the 20th century, it was ''molasses crumb pie'' or ''soda rivvel cake'' (

rivels Rivels are an ingredient in some types of soup, often a chicken-based soup (archetypically chicken corn soup) or potato soup. Rivels are common in Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. They are composed primarily of egg and wheat flour Wheat flour is ...

are lumps of food).

References

External links

"Pebble-Dash" or Shoo-Fly Pie
a page from a 1915 cookbook (''Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled During Her Visit Among the "Pennsylvania Germans"'') at the website of the

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

Library
Shoo-fly, don't Amish me
a March 2006 ''

Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878. It is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. The ''Yale Daily News'' has consis ...