Authentic Lancaster County Shoofly Pie

You are sitting at a restaurant, reading the dessert menu. There’s Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, and Shoofly Pie.

Huh? Shoofly Pie?  What’s that?

According to pie history, Shoofly Pie is an early American pie dating back to the early 1700s. Made by the Pennsylvania Dutch colonists, this dessert pie—a gooey molasses-based confection—was often baked in outdoor ovens and placed on windowsills to cool. Understandably, the sweet aroma of the pie would attract a large number of flies, causing bakers to shoo them away while the pies were cooling. The pie was a classic example of concoctions that “made do” with the available ingredients.

This pie remains famous to this day, although other historic pies haven’t fared so well.

Facts About Pies

Here are a few historical facts about pies:

Authentic Lancaster County Shoofly Pie

• The first pies were not desserts at all but were filled with meat. Pyes was the original spelling, dating back to twelfth-century England.The crust portion of the pie was called the coffyn. It was made thicker than the meat filling it held, and it was made from flour, suet, and boiling water.The meat in these pyes was from various fowl, positioning the legs to hang over the side of the dish when baked. The legs served as handles for easy removal and eating of the pye.The fruit pie is thought to have first been made during the 1500s. However, there is evidence that pies containing figs and dates were baked for the Egyptian Pharaohs.Queen Elizabeth I is credited with inventing the cherry pie.