Allentown Fair winning recipes: Return of shoofly pie

Allentown Fair winning recipes: Return of shoofly pie
Doris Harper won this year's Shoofly Pie Contest at the Allentown Fair. (Harry Fisher, THE MORNING CALL)

It was a bit of a flashback at this year's Allentown Fair.

In 1988, the fair held its first Shoofly Pie Contest, drawing more than 110 entries.


But after many years of being a fair contest staple, the humble shoofly pie took a leave of absence.

This year, the contest celebrating the Pennsylvania Dutch dessert made its return to the fair, and perennial contest powerhouse Doris Harper took the top prize.


"They [judges] are telling me it's as smooth as silk," says Julie Intrepido-Kmetz, contest coordinator for the Allentown Fair.

Harper was emotional when she learned she won. She was a bit shaken up as she climbed to the stage to accept her ribbon and her $75 prize.

Harper had a rough few days leading up to her contest win, including an oven on the fritz and expensive car trouble. But she persevered, and made the traditional pie that wowed the judges.

"I make it [shoofly pie] all the time," the Allentown resident says. "I love to bake."


Harper beat 21 other entries. The contest was judged by 10 people, including Frank Nickischer, who was a judge at the original shoofly pie contest in 1988.

Intrepido-Kmetz says the shoofly pie category drew the fair's heavy hitters, or people who come every year and leave with multiple ribbons.

Shoofly pie contest entries were judged on crust (color, flavor, texture, and doneness), aroma, filling (consistency, moistness, doneness and flavor) and creativity.

A Pennsylvania Dutch specialty, shoofly pie might not be the most glamorous of pies. There's no seasonal, locally grown fruit or a complex list of ingredients.

But what the humble shoofly pie does offer is undeniably rich, dark, unique sweetness with deep Pennsylvania Dutch roots.

There are two types of shoofly pie: "wet bottom" or "dry bottom." Wet bottom features a layer of molasses mixture that sits above a cakey upper portion and crust. Dry-bottom style mixes the molasses mixture with the cakey section, producing more of an overall brown sugar cake flavor on top of the crust. Both styles come blanketed with crumbs.

Harper takes a traditional approach. Her ingredients are the simple staples of any shoofly pie, including things like Crisco, molasses (she uses Grandma's unsulphured original) and brown sugar.

Her pie is rich with strong molasses flavor but isn't overly sweet. She also follows the time-honored trick of using ice water to make her pie crust. Ice water helps keep the pie crust as cold as possible, making for a flaky texture.


Her shoofly pie is one of a long list of her blue-ribbon-winning recipes. She's been competing at the fair for 20 years. Last year she won first place for her raspberry angel food cake, and in 2008 won first place in the Hidden Valley Dressings "Fresh Taste for The Family" recipe contest with her Colorful Vegetable Salad.

Harper says she doesn't compete for the sake of winning. She does it because it's fun.

"I enjoy doing it," Harper says. "I like the company."

Coming Sept. 24: More Allentown Fair culinary contest winners

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