Shoofly Pie

Shoofly pie — a single-crust pie with a filling of molasses, brown sugar, and water beneath a crumb topping of flour, brown sugar, and butter — is the Pennsylvania Dutch dessert most closely identified with the Lancaster County Amish and Mennonite communities. The name comes from the need to "shoo" away the flies attracted by the molasses (or from the *Shoo-Fly* brand of molasses, depending on the source). The pie exists in two forms: **wet-bottom** (the molasses filling remains gooey and custardy beneath the crumb) and **dry-bottom** (the crumb is distributed throughout, producing a more cake-like texture). The wet-bottom is the more traditional and the more interesting.

A single pie crust filled with a mixture of molasses (dark, full-flavoured — not blackstrap), brown sugar, boiling water, and baking soda (the soda reacts with the molasses's acid, producing carbon dioxide that lightens the filling). A crumb topping of flour, brown sugar, and butter (cut together into coarse crumbs) is sprinkled over the filling. During baking (175°C, 35-40 minutes), the crumb partially sinks into the filling while some remains on top, creating a layered texture: gooey molasses bottom, cakey middle, crumbly top.

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