Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Pie
The Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast pie: a wet-bottom molasses filling lightened with baking soda and boiling water, under a spiced brown sugar crumb top, in a flaky sour cream crust.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Shoofly pie is probably named after a mule. Pennsylvania Dutch food historian William Woys Weaver, as told by America's Test Kitchen's Mark Huxsoll, says the pie is named after "the famous boxing mule, Shoofly", a late 19th-century circus act that toured Dutch Country; the mule was named after a Civil War-era song, a Philadelphia molasses brand renamed itself after the mule, and the molasses pie took the name too (November 3, 2023:). The story about flies buzzing around a cooling pie is, as Wikipedia puts it, among the folktales that are mostly "apocryphal". The pie itself is a cake that grew a crust. Weaver says it evolved in the 1880s from the 1876 centennial cake made in Philadelphia for the 100th anniversary of independence; Wikipedia adds that there is no evidence of it before the Civil War, that home bakers added the crust in the 1880s, and that the name, though used then, first appeared in print after World War I. There are two camps: dry-bottom, cake-like all the way through and good for dunking in coffee, and wet-bottom, with a gooey molasses layer under the cake. ATK's recipe is wet-bottom, which Huxsoll says is the more popular style today, and in Dutch Country it is breakfast, eaten warm with strong black coffee.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast pie: a wet-bottom molasses filling lightened with baking soda and boiling water, under a spiced brown sugar crumb top, in a flaky sour cream crust.
🇬🇧 The original
The British original is the mince pie: a small, sealed pastry of dried fruit, suet and spice that once held real minced meat. See the British Mince Pies recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Baking soda and boiling water
The soda reacts with the acidity of the molasses and lightens the filling, so the top bakes into a soft cake while the bottom stays a gooey layer (ATK).
Sour cream in the crust
It replaces part of the butter, makes the dough easier to roll, and the bit of sugar helps it brown (ATK).
🧰 You'll need 8 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Step by step
- Step 1
Stir the ice water and sour cream together. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor 5 seconds, scatter in the butter and pulse about 10 times, to pea-size pieces. Add the sour cream mixture and pulse about 12 times, until the dough clumps. Knead briefly, shape a 5-inch disk, wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Step 2
Let the dough soften 10 minutes, roll it to a 12-inch circle and ease it into a 9-inch metal pie plate. Trim to 1/2 inch, tuck it under, crimp so the edge sticks out about 1/4 inch past the rim, then wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
- Step 3
Set a rack in the lowest position and heat the oven to 425°F. Pulse the flour, brown sugar, salt and spices 3 times, add the butter and pulse about 20 times, to fine crumbs. Set aside 1/4 cup of the crumbs for the top.
- Step 4
Whisk the molasses and egg in a large bowl. Stir the baking soda into the boiling water until it dissolves, then pour it slowly into the molasses while whisking constantly. Whisk in the rest of the crumb mixture until smooth and pour the filling into the chilled crust.
✓ What it should look like - Step 5
Sprinkle the reserved 1/4 cup crumbs evenly over the top. Bake 10 minutes at 425°F, until the crust is light golden.
- Step 6
Lower the oven to 350°F and bake 30 to 35 minutes more, until the center is just set and reads 200°F to 210°F.
✓ What it should look like - Step 7
Cool on a rack about 1 hour, until just warm, then slice. It keeps, wrapped, at room temperature up to 7 days; rewarm slices at 350°F for 5 to 10 minutes.
Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Pie
Serves 8 · one 9-inch pie · 1 hr 15 min total
Crust
- 3 tbsp ice water
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 1 1/4 cups (177 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
Filling and crumb top
- 3/4 cup (106 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed (99 g) brown sugar
- 1 tsp table salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp each ground cloves, ginger and nutmeg
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
- 1 cup mild unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap)
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup boiling water
Equipment: Oven, Food processor, Pie plate, Instant-read thermometer, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowls, Whisk
Method
- Stir the ice water and sour cream together. Pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor 5 seconds, scatter in the butter and pulse about 10 times, to pea-size pieces. Add the sour cream mixture and pulse about 12 times, until the dough clumps. Knead briefly, shape a 5-inch disk, wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Let the dough soften 10 minutes, roll it to a 12-inch circle and ease it into a 9-inch metal pie plate. Trim to 1/2 inch, tuck it under, crimp so the edge sticks out about 1/4 inch past the rim, then wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
- Set a rack in the lowest position and heat the oven to 425°F. Pulse the flour, brown sugar, salt and spices 3 times, add the butter and pulse about 20 times, to fine crumbs. Set aside 1/4 cup of the crumbs for the top.
- Whisk the molasses and egg in a large bowl. Stir the baking soda into the boiling water until it dissolves, then pour it slowly into the molasses while whisking constantly. Whisk in the rest of the crumb mixture until smooth and pour the filling into the chilled crust.
- Sprinkle the reserved 1/4 cup crumbs evenly over the top. Bake 10 minutes at 425°F, until the crust is light golden.
- Lower the oven to 350°F and bake 30 to 35 minutes more, until the center is just set and reads 200°F to 210°F.
- Cool on a rack about 1 hour, until just warm, then slice. It keeps, wrapped, at room temperature up to 7 days; rewarm slices at 350°F for 5 to 10 minutes.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Country), "Shoofly Pie" by Mark Huxsoll (September 5, 2023; October/November 2023 issue), one 9-inch pie, serves 8. Amounts, the sour cream crust, the 425°F then 350°F bake, the 200°F to 210°F doneness temperature and the 1-hour cool are ATK's. History from ATK's article by Huxsoll and Wikipedia, linked in the Story. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Use mild molasses; blackstrap is too bitter and intense (ATK).
- Measure the boiling water from a just-boiled kettle so it is truly hot.
- ATK developed the recipe in a metal pie plate; glass can brown unevenly, and a disposable foil pan should go on a preheated baking sheet.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- It is named for the flies the molasses attracts. Disputed: a persistent story, but Wikipedia calls most of the pie's folktales apocryphal, and Weaver (via ATK) credits Shoofly the boxing mule and the molasses brand named after it.
- It was a Colonial or pre-Civil War pie. Disputed: Wikipedia says there is no evidence of it before the Civil War; Weaver (via ATK) dates it to the 1880s, from the 1876 centennial cake.
- Wet bottom is the Lancaster style. Disputed: Huxsoll calls wet-bottom the more popular style today (ATK); a search summary of other Lancaster sources says dry-bottom is more common in the Lancaster region.
- Eat it for breakfast. Documented as a custom: ATK's recipe and article both say it is traditionally eaten with strong black coffee, often for breakfast.
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