Bird-in-Hand’s Shoofly goes to New York City

Mix 300 cups of syrup, 1000 cups of flour, 625 cups of sugar, and 560 eggs. Then add a few spices and some tasty pie dough and what do you get? Four hundred shoofly pies, on the road to New York City. The folks at Bird-in-Hand Bakery are busy baking this week, in preparation for the official launch of National Shoofly Pie Day, May 14, in New York City. It’s all part of the state’s spring tourism marketing campaign; a little online web film all about Pennsylvania, love and, you guessed it, shoofly pie. Check it out at http://www.pastories.com.
The Smucker Family of Bird-in-Hand
So when did the Smucker family of Bird-in-Hand start baking shoofly pies? Well, we are not really sure, but a 1938 full-page color photo in National Geographic Magazine features Smucker family matriarch, Anna Mary “Grussy” Smucker, in the kitchen with her children. And what’s in the center of the kitchen table? You guessed it, her famous shoofly pie. The Smuckers have been serving up Grussy’s tasty treat to their lodging guests since first opening their Bird-in-Hand Inn in 1968. Grandsons John & Jim continue the legacy at their Bird-in-Hand neighborhood bakery, restaurant & inns, and are known to frequently taste-test the product (for breakfast, even!)
Where did shoofly pies come from?
We know the Amish & Mennonite made this pie famous, but where did their shoofly pie recipes come from? John Smucker tells us, “We know our ancestors were not making shoofly pie in the ‘old country,’ so they are truly an American/PA Dutch invention. A little historical background from our friend and author, William Woys Weaver, tells us that our PA Dutch ancestors where growing & milling corn, and in turn taking it to Philadelphia to be traded at the same time the West Indian Trade Network was established. By the 1770’s foods like allspice and molasses (check the recipe, they are in there!) were fully available in Eastern Pennsylvania’s country market towns to any farmer who could afford them. And the best news, these ingredients could be stored and pulled off the shelves for cooking during the winter season, when fresh items were hard to come by!”

For more information on Bird-in-Hand and shoofly pie, visit our website at http://www.bird-in-hand.com.