The Pennsylvania Dutch are known for their hard-working lifestyle where almost everything is done by hand. Imagine doing the family laundry in a tub? And can you appreciate the work that goes into plowing fields while walking behind a team of horses?
The bright side is that once you’ve expended all that energy, you can eat pretty much anything you want! This is one of the reasons the Amish and Mennonites are famous for their amazing desserts and breads. Here are a few of my favorites.
Shoo-fly Pie
While working at a commercial blood bank in West Philadelphia, I would go on a weekly “blood delivery run” to a Pottstown hospital that sat right on the edge of Amish country. Roadside stands were a welcome sight, and I always stopped to buy a shoo-fly pie. If you like molasses, you’ll love this, but I warn you, it is an unconventional way to make a pie!
Ingredients
9-inch unbaked pie shell
(easy crust recipe follows)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup boiling water
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup butter, margarine, or lard, softened
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°. In a medium bowl, dissolve soda in boiling water, then stir in molasses.
2. In another bowl, combine sugar, flour and butter, and use your fingers to rub together to make crumbs.
3. Place a third of the crumbs into the pie shell and gently ladle all the molasses mixture over it.
4. Place remaining crumbs on top to cover evenly. Do not stir. Bake 35 minutes or until nicely browned.
Pat-a-Pan Pie Crust
This amazing crust needs no mixing bowls and rolling pins! You mix and pat it in your pie pan. So easy and so Amish!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 Tbs cold milk
Directions
1. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the pie pan and mix with fingertips until evenly blended.
2. In a measuring cup combine the oil and milk and beat until creamy.
3. Pour all at once over the flour mixture. Mix with a fork until the flour mixture is completely moistened.
4. Pat the dough with your fingers, first at the sides of the plate and then across the bottom.
5. Flute the edges. Shell is now ready to be filled.
6. If you are preparing a shell to fill later or your recipe requires a prebaked crust, preheat oven to 425°.
7. Prick the surface of the pastry with a fork and bake 15 minutes. Use pie weights or check often and prick more if needed.
Amish Coffee Cake
This is quick, delicious, and needs no eggs!
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour milk, buttermilk, or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
For the Topping: 1/2 cup brown sugar mixed with 1 Tbs cinnamon
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Mix the sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Then add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. Pour into a greased 13×9 inch pan. Sprinkle topping on top of batter.
3. Bake 45-55 minutes till edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Amish Half-a-Pound Cake
This starts out in a cold oven — no preheating needed — and so nice for warm weather baking. You just need to remember to set the eggs and milk out on the counter for a couple of hours to warm them up a tad.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs (room temperature)
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup milk (room
temperature)
1/2 tsp mace or nutmeg
Directions
1. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Beat on medium speed for 20 minutes.
2. Pour into a greased tube pan and place in a cold oven. Turn oven to 350° and bake for 1 hour till golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
3. Cool 20 minutes before removing from pan.
4. Run a knife around the perimeter and tube sides to loosen, then invert on a plate.
5. Dust top with powdered sugar.
Be sure to check out my blog, www.acooksjournalblog.wordpress.com, this weekend for bonus recipes and a printable version of all the recipes I’ve featured in this newspaper. Click to follow me and have every new post delivered automatically to your inbox. And don’t forget to “Eat Yourself Full!”
Connie Tucker has been creating in the kitchen and at the typewriter for over 40 years. Her philosophy is “moderation in everything, including moderation.” Connie lives with her husband, Jerry, and their cats, Pinky and Elvis, on Madawaska Lake.
