Montgomery Pie
Entry in progress—B.P.
Dictionary of American Regional English
Montgomery pie n [Montgomery Co, Pennsylvania] sPA Cf shoofly pie
A pie made with a filling (as molasses, lemon custard) and with a layer of cake dough on top.
c1946 Griggs Sally Cook’s Recipe Book 44 Philadelphia, PA, Montgomery Pie.
1948 Hutchison PA Du. Cook Book 123, Mrs. Krusen’s Montgomery Pie—First Layer [includes molasses sugar, water, egg, lemon, flour]...Top layer [includes sugar, milk, butter, egg, baking powder, flour]. Line 2 pastry tins with pastry. Fill in 2 layers…Makes two 8-inch pies.
1955 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) 1 Feb 7/5 Specialty of Pennsylvania Dutch kitchens—Shoofly Pie…[W]e roll out a pastry crust and pour a mixture of molasses, water and baking soda on it. Then we sprinkle a crumbly mixture of flour, sugar, spices, salt and butter or margarine over the liquid. A strange combination to put in the oven and expect to come out an edible pie. but it does—with a flaky bottom crust, then a brown custardy layer and a cake-like top…Sometimes it is called Molasses Shoofly Pie. Sometimes it goes under the name of Shoofly Cake or Molasses Crumb Cake. And occasionally it gets its name from a Pennsylvania county and is called Montgomery Pie.
1957 Showalter Mennonite Cookbook 375 csPA, Montgomery Pie—Bottom Part: Molasses…sugar…1 egg…Top Part: sugar…soda…sour milk…flour.
1966-69 DARE (Qu. H63, Kinds of desserts) Inf PA1, Montgomery pie—coconut and molasses; PA9, Montgomery pies—lemon custard on the bottom with cake dough on top; PA18, Montgomery pie—molasses, dough on top, similar to shoofly pie; PA203, Montgomery pie.
1969 DARE Tape PA203, Montgomery pie..is something on the order of shoofly pie only it’s got a liquid in the bottom..it’s got like a cake—you mix up the egg and the sugar, the flour, a little baking powder and put that on top of the syrup that you put in, and bake it.
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Favorite Recipes
Published by the Ladies’ Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church
Sunbury, Penna.
1913
Pg. 110:
MONTGOMERY PIE
Part One—1 egg, 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup molasses, 1 lemon.
Part Two—2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup shortening, 3 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup thick milk, 1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer soda, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar. Put the first part in the bottom of the pies, then add the second part. This amount will make four pies and they are excellent.
Mrs. Mary A. Rockefeller.
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The Third Presbyterian Cook Book and Household Directory
Published in the interest of the “Manse Fund” by the “Mite Society” of the Third Presbyterian Church, of Chester, Penna.
West Chester, PA: Horace F. Temple, Printer
March 1917
Pg. 125:
MONTGOMERY PIE
Mrs. A. W. WOlf
Mix together for lower part.
1 egg
1 lemon
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup molasses
2 cups cold water
Mix together for upper part.
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sweet milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
Line a deep dish with puff paste. Pour in the mixture for lower part, then add the mixture for upper part, but do not stir the two together.
26 August 1936, Frederick (MD) News-Post, “Favorite Dishes of Frederick Families,” pg. 4, col. 3:
MONTGOMERY PIE
Cover pie plate with pie crust. Make first layers of filling with 1 cup of molasses, 1 cup of sugar, 1 pint of water, 1 egg, 1 lemon, 2 tablespoon flour. Top layer: 2 cups sugar, 1 cup thick milk, 1/2 cup butter, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 1/2 cups flour. This quantity makes four pies.—Mrs. Justus B. Atkinson.