*Note. There are several other recipes mentioned in Clementine’s narrative. If any sound appealing let me know and I’ll post them. They already exist as individual Word Docs so it’s no trouble just copy/pasting.

“See Edna Eby Heller,” that’s what they told me at The Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore Center in Bethel where I went asking for help in finding Dutchland recipes. “But I want more than recipes,” I explained. “I want to visit the Peen-Dutch kitchens and actually see some of these foods prepared.” Again it was “See Edna Heller, she will take you around.

This Edna, I discovered, was born in Lititz in Lancaster County and this fact alone gave her a real head start in the cookery art. Then, a few years ago, The Pennsylvania Dutchman, a quarterly publication of the Folklore Center of Franklin and Marshall College asked Edna to be their Food Editor, writing on traditional dishes. That’s been Edna’s job since.

I was visiting Edna in her Buena Vista home two miles east of Hershey, Pennsylvania. It’s there in her colorful kitchen that she spends one day a week testing old-time good things, translating pinches and handfuls into accurate measurements. Chicken Corn Soup, for one. Sugar cakes stand high on the preferred list as they do with most Dutch families. “Some of you come-a-visiting folks,” Edna told me, “call sugar cake coffee cake, but my goodness, we have the cake with coffee, of course, but come Sunday afternoon, what could be more welcome than a piece of sugar cake with a glass of lemonade? Mother baked the sugar cake in pie tins and sprinkled over granulated sugar just before baking—this formed a crust rather similar to icing. The layers were cut into wide wedges to serve.

“What’s an honest-to-goodness shoo-fly pie?” I asked. “I know in general that the pie is a combination of brown sugar and molasses flavor in a cake baked in a pie crust,” I said. “But what has had me confused over the years is that sometimes shoo-fly pie is dry, sometimes it’s very wet on the bottom and sometimes it’s a little wet all the way through.

“There you have it,” said Edna. “Shoo-flies are of three kinds. A dry pie is good for dunking and the men love this for breakfast. It has a slightly moist base with crumbs on top. Then there is the very gooey type with a truly wet bottom and again crumbs on top. The third is a real cake in type. Crumbs and liquid are alternated and this kind is usually called shoo-fly cake despite the fact that it is baked in a pastry shell.”

Clementine Paddleford, How America Eats (1960)

DRY SHOO-FLY PIE

Yield: 3 8-inch pies

Pastry for 3 8-inch pie shells

CRUMB MIXTURE

4 C sifted flour
¾ C lard
1 C brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line 3 8-inch pie pans with pastry. Combine ingredients for crumb mixture “using hands” to blend well.

LIQUID MIXTURE

1 C molasses
1 tsp baking soda
1 C boiling water

Combine ingredients for Liquid Mixture, pour evenly into prepared pie pans, top evenly with Crumb Mixture, and bake about 25 minutes.

WET SHOO-FLY PIE

Yield: 1 9-inch pie

Pastry for 1 9-inch pie shell

CRUMB MIXTURE

¾ C sifted flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
½ C brown sugar
2 Tbsp shortening

Preheat oven to 400˚. Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Combine ingredients for Crumb Mixture “using hands to blend.”

LIQUID

½ C dark molasses
¼ C boiling water
1 egg yolk, well beaten
½ tsp baking soda

Combine ingredients for Liquid, pour into prepared pie shell, top with Crumb Mixture, and bake until pie starts to brown, about 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 325˚ and bake until firm, about 30 minutes more.

CAKE-TYPE SHOO-FLY PIE WITH CRUMB MIXTURE AND LIQUID

Yield 1 8- or 9-inch pie

Pastry for 1 8- or 9-inch pie shell

CRUMB MIXTURE

1½ C sifted flour
½ C sugar, “brown and white mixed”
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp shortening

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line an 8- or 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Combine ingredients for Crumb Mixture, using hands to blend.

LIQUID

½ C dark molasses
½ tsp baking soda
½ C boiling water

Combine ingredients for Liquid, pour half into prepared pie shell, sprinkle with half the Crumb Mixture, and repeat layering with remaining Liquid and Crumb Mixture. Bake about 30 minutes.