You've got your classics—pumpkin, apple, and cherry. From there are the lesser favored blueberry, key lime, and sweet potato pies. A baker is never short of pie recipe options, but sometimes it comes down to trying something new to step away from the classics. A shoofly pie is definitely a lesser known option, but it's time to stop sleeping on it.
Whether you have heard of it or not, there's a lot to learn about shoofly pie and where it comes from—before we even get in to how it tastes. Here's all you need to know.
Where Does it Come From?
Shoofly's history is almost as rich as the pie itself. According to multiple sources, including The Washington Post, it dates back to the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 18th century. There's mixed thoughts on whether it's shoofly, shoo-fly or shoo fly, but the pie itself stays generally the same. The recipe speaks for itself when showing that they enjoyed their sweets at the time.
Go much further west of PA and you won't find shoofly pie in many bake shops. Closer to the source of the sweet treat, that being Pennsylvania Amish country, you'll find plenty of opportunities to try it.
What is it Made of?
With its simple origin, the ingredients are fitting. A Taste of Home recipe provides a solid look at the basic ingredients—that being fat, flour, brown sugar and molasses. Much like the spelling of the pie, there is a variation in the ingredients beyond the basic ones.
One of the main ingredients is molasses, which is like the superfood of sweeteners. It's known for its role in gingerbread, but it is so much more as far as enriching and adding flavor to a recipe.
Another main ingredient is brown sugar, which is essentially white sugar with molasses, according to The Sugar Association. There's that molasses again! Most baking calls for light brown sugar, classic chocolate chip cookies being one. Dark brown sugar has more of that molasses flavor in it. In looking at recipes, most do not specify for light or dark. Light brown sugar would be a safe bet consideingr it has less molasses and the rest of the pie already has so much.
These combined sweeteners, along with the other pie essentials like baking soda and flour, come together to form a sweet, rich flavor.
So Now The Name Can Make Sense
We have a few options to choose from for when it comes to the source of the name of the pie. The first one seems to make the most sense—to me anyway. Shoofly sounds like the strangest name for a pie until you think about how sweet it is. Flies are attracted to the pie for the sweet ingredients, meaning they'll be swarming it if you manage to have anything left after sitting down to eat it. And what do you say when there's flies? Shoo, fly!
There are chances the name simply comes from a name of a molasses company, which was Shoofly. That brand is hard to come by nowadays, if it is even around at all. Either way, the name of this pie goes above all else in its creativity.
What Does it Taste like?
Prior to trying shoofly pie, there was word around family and friends that it was amazing. I took to making it myself instead of buying one, which gives me even better or worse insight on the pie (you decide).
Shoofly is not for the faint at heart, or maybe for those who tend to stay away from sweets. It has hints of gingerbread cookies and just straight sugar, but overall a sweet treat that will have you forgetting about that resolution to eat healthier. Do yourself a favor an pick up some molasses and pie crust on your next grocery story visit.