Shoofly pie

Shoofly pie is a type of American pie made with molasses associated with Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. While shoo-fly pie has been a staple of Moravian (Hussite), Mennonite, and Amish foodways, there is scant evidence concerning its origins, and most of the folktales concerning the pie are apocryphal, including the persistent legend that the name comes from flies being attracted to the sweet filling. The name shoo-fly was borrowed from a brand of molasses that was popular in parts of the U . during the late 19th century. Possibly related to the Jenny Lind pie (a soft gingerbread pie), it may have originated among the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1880s as molasses crumb cake, and is sometimes called molasses crumb pie. Traditionally it was not served as a dessert pie, but instead as a breakfast food with hot coffee. The modern form of shoo-fly pie as a crumb cake served in pie crust was a post-Civil War innovation, when cast iron cookware and stoves made pie crust more feasible for home cooks.