Anthony wrote:

> My bro in law and his wife are coming to stay for a week and she has just
> been diagnosed as lactose intolerant. Any tips on what to feed/ not feed
> them? In particular, any good dessert recipes? Most of mine depend heavily
> on butter and cream. TIA.

A cut and paste of an old Joe The Pie Man post:

Wet-bottom Shoo-Fly Pie

This is from The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking by Edna Eby
Heller (1968) and is attributed to Ella Woodside of Millersburg,
PA. Heller gives 2 other variations, both drier.

Novices may be alarmed by the looks of the finished pie. The top
will be crumbly in appearance. This is OK. What you want is a
crumbly surface, a cake-like midlevel, and a damp zone next to
the crust.

Liquid ingredients:
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda

Crumbs:
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening

Unbaked pastry shell

Beat the egg yolk in a small bowl. Blend in the molasses. Add
the boiling water with the soda dissolved in it. Set aside.

Combined dry ingredients with shortening and work into crumbs
with fingers. Put liquid into pastry shell and top with crumbs.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to
325 and bake 35 minutes longer.

William Woys Weaver's Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking
gives yet another variant which I have not tried. He suggests
using a food processor to make the crumbs and making sure that
the crumbs are spready evenly along the sides to prevent
overflow during baking.

Weaver also claims the dish was first served at the Philadelphia
Centennial in 1876 as Centennial Cake and later became known
as Shoofly Pie in reference to the brand of molasses used in the
original version.

Heller's brand of choice is Brer Rabbit yellow label. Blackstrap
would probably be too assertive.