• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
✮ The Food Dictator ✮

The Hirshon Amish Shoofly Pie

March 1, 2016 by The Generalissimo 1 Comment

150
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditWhatsappYummly
Light Dark Dark Light
()
The Hirshon Amish Shoofly Pie
Shoofly Pie Image Used Under Creative Commons License From flysandals.blogspot.com

Citizens! I once spent an idyllic week on an Amish farm in Lancaster, PA when I was 5 – until my mother apparently almost got us both killed by an angry Amishman who was infuriated by her trying to take his picture against his wishes.

Needless to say, this put a quick end to my Amish outing – still, the Amish really know how to put on a feed and I think my time with them influenced and in fact instilled my own ability to cook for dozens of people…or so I like to tell myself.

Shoofly pie is perhaps the most iconic Amish recipe – as noted on www.foodtimeline.org:

“Shoofly pie has such an interesting name, it must have an equally interesting history. It certainly does!

Many food history reference books attribute the origin of shoofly pie to the Pennslyvania Dutch. A closer examination of culinary evidence suggests this group may be able to claim the name, but maybe not the recipe.

This resiliant sugar-based formula is capable of adapting through the ages according to ingredient availability and cook ingenuity. Food historians tell us sugar-filled pastries originated in the Ancient Middle East. Sweet treacle pies were popular all over Medieval Europe. Renaissance diners preferred similar compostions made with fine white sugar.

These recipes were introduced to America by European settlers from several nations. Molasses was often substituted for treacle in colonial American recipes. Some folks say the “original shoofly recipe” is descended from Centennial cake. Both desserts have striking similarities.

WHY SHOOFLY? According to the book Rare Bits, Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, by Patricia Bunning Stevens (p. 262) shoofly pie was created when “the pie-loving Pennsylvania Dutch …found themselves short of baking supplies in the late winter and early spring…all that was left in the pantry were flour, lard, and molasses.

From these sparse ingredients they fashioned Shoo-Fly Pie and found that their families liked it so well that they soon made it all year round. The unusual name is presumed to come from the fact that pools of sweet, sticky molasses sometimes formed on the surface of the pie while it was cooling, inevitably attracting flies.”

According to the The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, by John Mariani (p. 293) the term “Shoo Fly Pie” was not recorded in print until 1926.

“In American cuisine, shoofly pie is a sort of treacle tart, made with molasses or brown sugar and topped with a sugar, flour, and butter crumble. It’s name is generally taken to be an allusion to the fact that it is so attractive to flies that they have to be constantly shooed away from it, but the fact that it originated as a Pennsylvania-Dutch specialty suggests the possibility that shoofly is an alteration of an unidentified German word.”

—An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 310-1)

WHAT IS AMISH SHOOFLY?

There are two basic variations on the traditional Amish Shoofly Pie recipe.”Traditional” Shoo-fly pies are made with either a “wet bottom” (soft filling and crumb topping) or “dry bottom” (crumb topping is mixed into the filling), which is commonly served for breakfast.”

My version of the classic recipe is a wet-bottomed Shoofly Pie that is resolutely traditional, but spiced as only TFD can do – I hope you enjoy it, Citizens! This would be a most satisfactory dessert following an Amish meal including their famed mashed potatoes!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon

The Hirshon Amish Shoofly Pie


★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

  • Total Time: 0 hours
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3/4 cup Flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 3/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp each powdered ginger and ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten well
  • 1 cup regular unsulfured molasses – NOT blackstrap! If all you can find is blackstrap, substitute 3/4 cup blackstrap with 1/4 cup maple syrup to cut the bitterness
  • 3/4 cup boiling water
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • ***
  • Your favorite pie crust dough for a 9-inch pie, or try this one:
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 6 tablespoons ice cold water
  • 2 teaspoons vinegar
  • 1 1/2 cup shortening

Instructions

  1. For the Piecrust:
  2. Mix flour, shortening and salt until crumbly. Add the beaten egg to the water and vinegar and mix with the flour mixture.
  3. Roll onto a flour-covered pastry board. Makes 2 9-inch pie crusts.
  4. For the topping:
  5. Combine flour, sugar, spices, and salt with the shortening. Work into crumbs with your hands.
  6. For the filling:
  7. Add beaten egg yolk to molasses. Pour boiling water over soda until dissolved; then add to molasses mixture.
  8. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry and fill it with the molasses mixture. Top with the crumb mixture.Bake at 400 degrees until the crust browns, about 10 minutes. Reduce to 325 degrees and bake firm.
  • Prep Time: 0 hours
  • Cook Time: 0 hours

Nutrition

  • Calories: 1509.15 kcal
  • Sugar: 80.95 g
  • Sodium: 903.41 mg
  • Fat: 86.79 g
  • Saturated Fat: 21.92 g
  • Trans Fat: 10.97 g
  • Carbohydrates: 171.27 g
  • Fiber: 3.63 g
  • Protein: 14.1 g
  • Cholesterol: 76.52 mg

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thefooddictator on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook and hashtag it #TFD

How useful was this post, Citizen?

Click to rate My Recipe, Citizen - 5 hearts are ALWAYS appreciated!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media, Citizen!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Related posts:

The Hirshon Zanzibar Beef Pilau
The Hirshon Italian Lombardy Ravioli - Casoncelli Alla Bergamasca
The Hirshon Mozambique Peri-Peri Sauce
The Hirshon Czech Beehive Cookies - Vosi Hnizda
The Hirshon Key West Conch Chowder
The Hirshon Thai Pork with Garlic and Pepper - หมูทอดกระเทียมพริกไทย
The Hirshon Rosh Hashanah Round Challah - רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה‎ חַלָּה
The Hirshon Lebanese Meatballs in Tomato Pomegranate Sauce - داود باشا

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Dessert

About The Generalissimo

The myth of the Generalissimo is far more interesting than the reality.

Previous Post: « The Hirshon Nepalese Fish Sukuti – सुकुटी
Next Post: The Hirshon Northern Irish “Yellow Man” Candy »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vickie Martin

    March 1, 2016 at 11:14 PM

    I’ve had shoe fly pie. Very, very rich.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

➤ Citizens – Please Support TFD Nation!

Donate to Help TFD!

⇔ Search, And Ye Shall Assuredly Find!

✮ Citizens ✮

TFD currently has a total of 1,364 posts and 1,160,868 words written since December of 2014! Add your voice to My 50,000+ dedicated readers, comment on My recipes and thus become an active member of TFD Nation! Looking for a particular recipe? Search for it in the box above or via the category tags below - there are THOUSANDS of the finest in world and historic recipes here!

❧ TREMBLE Before Our Categoric Zeal!

Appetizers (146)Beef (143)Beverages (24)Bread (112)Cheese (64)Chicken (132)Chinese (122)Chocolate (16)Condiments (262)Dessert (166)Drinks (23)Duck (20)Egg (47)Fish (56)French (56)Game (30)Georgian (34)Indian (60)Italian (58)Jewish (84)Lamb (73)Manifestos (1)Pasta (90)Pork (148)Salad (40)Sandwich (42)Seafood (84)Shrimp (53)Soup (109)Spices (12)Tofu (7)Turkey (15)Veal (18)Vegetables (108)

✺ Click to Follow Us Across Social Media!

Facebook   

    instagram

☥ TFD SPEAKS!!!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TFD-Avatar-Cold-Open-FINAL.mp4

 Enjoy TFD’s Mellifluous Podcasts, Citizen!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

© 2023 · The Food Dictator is abjectly served by WORDPRESS

✮ The Food Dictator ✮
Manage Cookie Consent
Citizens!

Be advised that as an enlightened Dictatorship here at TFD, we are indeed on the side of right when it comes to protecting the privacy of TFD Nation!

We do use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information, solely to improve your browsing experience and to show personalized ads.

Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions - trust us, we really ARE on your side!

YOUR LOYALTY IS NOTED! 🎖️
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
150
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditMailYummly