Amish Shoo-Fly and Whoopie Pies

Amish shoo-fly pies "made from gooey molasses-based filling and sometimes topped with chocolate cream." 

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith c. 1980 from the Library of Congress.

One of my favorite things to do when I am bored is to troll the Library of Congress digital collections (pushes up invisible nerd glasses). Of course I tend to look up topics I have a passionate interest in-- folk songs, hobos, and you guessed it, pies (and somehow those are all related. hmm...). I think I may have looked at all 1,785 entries for pie in the catalog. It's true.

You'll be seeing more of my search results, but these two photos of Amish shoo-fly pies and whoopie pies from Lancaster, Pennsylvania caught my eye. Just today at work we were discussing the possibility of featuring Maryland Amish whoopie pie vendors at an event, and I've been doing some free-lance work transcribing interviews related to medicine in Amish communities. I also grew up in northern Indiana, where we went out for lunch at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, bought produce from Amish farmers at the Goshen Farmers' Market, and spotted buggies parked outside our local Target. When I lived here in D.C. previously, I once met up with my friend Francis Lam (of Gilt Taste and formerly of Salon.com and Gourmet Magazine, RIP) at the Dutch Country Farmers' Market in Burtonsville, Maryland. There we wandered through the rows of vendors, taking in the sights of blaze orange cheese mixtures, mayonnaise-based casseroles, and strange pickled things, and picked up some to take home. I definitely snagged a whoopie pie or two and remember thinking it interesting that the baker's crescent-shaped fried pies or hand pies were called "moon pies," which to most of America, or at least south of the Mason-Dixon line, means something else entirely. 

 Amish whoopie pies "a surprisingly sinful treat." 

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith c. 1980 from the Library of Congress.

 There's something weird about these photos (or is it just me?). Though they are lined up in almost perfect rows according to color and variety, they still seem to be shot without artifice, sans any of today's bloggy food styling, as if they could appear in your middle school home-ec class textbook with a simple caption "Amish desserts". All the while, there is something appealing about them--I'd totally chomp into one of those oatmeal whoopie pies or chocolate covered shoo-fly pies given the chance. I should probably plan a return trip to the Dutch Country Market or whip up some oatmeal pies of my own? Shoo fly, don't bother me.

"Indiana" Amish Oatmeal Pie

For Christmas, my mom gave my dad The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family by Elizabeth Coblentz. My dad was a fan of Coblentz' column, The Amish Cook, which she wrote out longhand by candlelight every week in her Indiana home in an old order Amish community. She mailed or directly delivered the column to her editor, Kevin Williams, who edited and published her words. Though Coblentz passed away in 2002, many of her recipes and domestic wisdom live on in this cookbook. On my last night at home in Indiana, I thought it only appropriate to try a pie from her book. As they say, when in Indiana...

All of her pie recipes sounded intriguing, if not all appetizing. There was cracker pie (mock-apple), and rhubarb custard pie (out of season), and whoopie pies, but we finally decided on an oatmeal pie, as my dad said it was a favorite, similar to pecan pie, that he used to order from the nearby Amish restaurant, Das Dutchman Essenhaus. We had all the ingredients, except for pecans instead of walnuts, so I whipped up my version, an "Indiana" Amish oatmeal pie. Here's the recipe.

"Indiana" Amish Oatmeal Pie

adapted from Elizabeth Coblentz's The Amish Cook

Ingredients

Nothing-in-the-House pie crust, halved (I noticed that Coblentz's was very close to ours)

1/2 c. (one stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 c. light corn syrup (could use brown rice syrup or agave)

3/4 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. pecan pieces (the original recipe uses walnuts)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Follow the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust recipe (halved, as only a bottom crust is needed), roll out chilled crust and place in a greased and floured pie pan. Flute edges decoratively. 

2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine melted butter, sugar and eggs. Add corn syrup, oats, nuts, and combine. Pour into pie shell and bake for 1 hour until thickened inside and golden brown on top.

This pie whips up in no time and has the flavor of pecan pie (though less syrupy sweet) combined with baked oatmeal (one of my favorite dishes from the Mennonite summer camp I attended as a kid). It would be a great breakfast pie, but was also a hearty dessert, especially when paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a fiddle tune or two around the fire with my dad (and alright, several bootleg episodes of Downton Abbey season two!) on my last night at home for a while.