Shoofly Don’t Bother Me
Over the Holiday Break EvoDiva (soon to be a contributer) and I went to visit our slipper-Crocs wearing friend, Hickey. Lucky for us, she lives just 45 minutes from Lancaster, PA. Yes, my friends, over my week and a half vacation I elected to gawk at women in bonnets and men in beards in Amish Country. We played tourist, hitting up little stores (see above) selling quilts, fabrics, servingware and t-shirts and any other crappy little thing that one does not need but one wants.
Like the horse and buggy charm necklace I picked up for a whopping $4.98.
Oh, and the Amish must be into um, heavy daytime drinking, because they had this on display:
Yes, that is a TAILGATE TOILET. Don’t ask me.
More importantly though, there was delicious food there.
Jump with me for more on Adventures in Amish Country.
Say hello to shoofly pie.
As soon as we walked into one of the little shops a man behind the counter yelled to us “SHOOFLY PIE! ” And held out samples of this foreign dessert, plated with a dollop of whipped cream. I had never heard of this strange, powdery-textured pie, but I of course took full advantage of this complimentary sugar opportunity. And it was well worth the calories – I bought two.
If you can read this flyer at all, you might be able to make out the ingredients for this homey pie. (And don’t you love that the directions call for microwave heating.) First of all it’s dairy free so it can last in the fridge for up to a month, which I found exhilarating. I love the combo of natural and lasting for a long time. It’s rare these days in the movements for organic, local, sustainable…
Anyway, it’s full of molasses and brown sugar, and it tasted, well, like gooey sugar. Which is to say it tasted a-mazing. Maybe I’m not the best person to describe tastiness. But it was lovely, especially warmed for a bit. So, next time you’re in Amish Country, buy that tacky t-shirt and bring home a box of shoofly pie.
Corn syrup AND refiner’s syrup? No wonder this thing lasts forever.
Love the microwave directions on an Amish product. Genius.
fine, maybe it’s not the most natural pie in the world.
Actually, those are both natural ingredients – just like alcohol, they can be created from corn and other ingredients without requiring any artificial ingredients or catalysts.
Probably not quite the kind of ‘natural’ you had in mind, though.
Lancaster, PA, I spent 4 years of my life there…and never ate one type of amish food.
corn syrup is natural?
Yum, Lancaster. It’s one of our favorite places to go. After reading your entry, now I’m craving a scrapple, egg and cheese wrap from Stolzfus Meats in Intercourse.