We left Niagara Falls to travel to Lancaster in Pennsylvania and our encounter with the Amish People.
We continued on to Lancaster through farming lands where corn was the main crop. It was half way through harvest season so we saw some fields harvested while others remained untouched.
We arrived at our hotel, The Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square and then had an evening meal at an Amish run restaurant enjoying local Amish food which was similar to the food I cook at home. We did, however, enjoy a traditional Amish dessert of Shoofly Pie.
Shoofly Pie
We arrived at our hotel, The Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square and then had an evening meal at an Amish run restaurant enjoying local Amish food which was similar to the food I cook at home. We did, however, enjoy a traditional Amish dessert of Shoofly Pie.
Shoofly Pie
Perhaps no other single dessert is so identified
with Amish Country as is the shoofly pie. First-time visitors always want to
know what it is.
We might say it is more like a coffee cake, with a
gooey molasses bottom. This bottom can be thick or barely visible, hence we
refer to pies as wet-bottom or dry-bottom. Some cooks put chocolate icing on
top for a chocolate shoofly pie. Some use spices; some don't. There does seem
to be agreement that they are best slightly warmed with a major dab of whipped
cream on top. There are even recipes for shoofly cake.
Shoofly pies can be tasted in most of the area
restaurants, where you can usually buy one to take home as well. Most people
find them very sweet, what with all that molasses and brown sugar. If you like
sweet desserts, you'll probably love shoofly pie.
But how did these pies get their name? The most
logical explanation seems to be that the sweet ingredients attracted flies when
the pies were cooling. The cooks had to "shoo" the flies away, hence
the name shoofly pie.
Another story claims that this is really a French
recipe, and that the crumb topping of the pie resembled the surface of the
cauliflower, which is "cheux-fleur" in French. This was eventually
pronounced as shoofly. Locals have a little problem with that explanation, and
most of us have never seen this pie served up in the fine restaurants of Paris.
No less an authority on things Pennsylvania Dutch
than John Joseph Stoudt states clearly that shoofly pies "are soundly
Pennsylvanian, made in the earlier days with sorghum, later with molasses, and
with brown rather than granulated sugar." Phyllis Pellman Good, in her
book Amish Cooking, feels that these pies may have been common
because "this hybrid cake within a pie shell" faired better in the
old style bake ovens after the bread had been baked. With modern kitchen
stoves, temperatures could be controlled and the more standard, lighter pies
developed.
Shoofly Pie Recipe
Original recipe makes 1 9-inch pie
1 (9 inch) pie shell
·
1 cup molasses
·
3/4 cup hot water
·
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
·
1 egg, beaten
·
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
·
1 cup packed brown sugar
·
1/4 cup shortening
Directions
1.
Preheat oven to 400
degrees F (200 degrees C).
2.
To Make Bottom
Layer: In a medium bowl combine molasses, hot water, and baking soda. Stir
well. Whisk in beaten egg. Pour mixture into pie shell.
3.
To Make Crumb
Topping: In a medium bowl combine flour and brown sugar. Mix well, then cut in
shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle on top of molasses
layer.
4.
Bake in preheated
oven for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake
an additional 30 minutes.
