eggs, historians conclude that it was typically baked during the winter, when chickens laid fewer eggs and molasses could be stored in the cold weather without fear of it fermenting. The use of baking powder places its invention firmly after the Civil War and in the 1870s, when Pennsylvania Dutch bakers began using baking powder. Variations A Montgomery pie is similar to a shoofly pie, except lemon juice is used in the bottom layer. Treacle tart is a pie with a filling made from light treacle. Name The modern name comes from a particular brand of molasses from Philadelphia, Shoofly Molasses. The name shoofly pie was used in the 1880s, but its first appearance in print was after World War I. The Shoofly brand of molasses was named after a popular circus animal that toured in Pennsylvania in the 19th century, Shoofly the Boxing Mule. The mule, in turn, may have been named after a song that became popular half a century before: "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me". The pie is mentioned in the song "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy," popularized by Dinah Shore in the 1940s. Shoofly pie is called Melassich Riwwelboi or Melassichriwwelkuche (molasses crumb cake) in the Pennsylvania Dutch language. Before its modern name became popular during the 20th century, it was molasses crumb pie or soda rivvel cake (rivels are lumps of food). See also Pie in American cuisine References External links "Pebble-Dash" or Shoo-Fly Pie, a page from a 1915 cookbook (Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled During Her Visit Among the "Pennsylvania Germans") at the website of the Michigan State University Library Shoo-fly, don't Amish me, a March 2006 Yale Daily News article on the pie which includes a recipe American pies Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine Sweet pies Molasses