Shoofly Pie & Whoopie Pies: What They Are and Where to Get the Best in Lancaster
By Best of Lancaster · Updated June 2026
Independently researched — we verify hours, prices, and local details at publish time. Some links earn us a commission at no cost to you (disclosure).
Two desserts rule Lancaster County, and first-timers routinely confuse them. Shoofly pie is a molasses crumb pie — sweet, sticky-bottomed, unapologetically old-fashioned. A whoopie pie isn't a pie at all: it's two soft chocolate cake rounds hugging a cream filling. Both are Pennsylvania Dutch classics (a heritage broader than just the Amish — here's that story), and both are mandatory eating. Here's the field guide.
Shoofly Pie, Decoded
Born of the winter pantry — molasses, flour, brown sugar, no fresh fruit required — shoofly pie comes in two schools: wet-bottom (a gooey molasses layer under the crumb, the Lancaster standard and the correct answer) and dry-bottom (cakier throughout, favored further north). The name? Folklore says the molasses drew flies at farm stands. It's breakfast-legal here: locals take a slice with coffee the way the rest of the country takes a doughnut.
Where to get it: the smorgasbord pie tables at Miller's and Good N Plenty serve the archetype; Central Market bakers sell it whole (Tue/Fri/Sat); and the roadside stands along Route 340 sell farm-kitchen versions that outclass anything in a box.
Whoopie Pies, Decoded
The classic is chocolate cake with vanilla cream, but Lancaster bakers riff — pumpkin in fall, red velvet, oatmeal cream. Pennsylvania Dutch tradition claims the whoopie pie as its own (Maine disputes it; we are not neutral here), with the name credited to the delighted shout of lunchbox-openers. Buy them the morning they're baked — market stands sell out by early afternoon, and a fresh one bears no resemblance to the shrink-wrapped tourist version.
Where to get them: Central Market first thing Saturday; the Bird-in-Hand bakeries along Route 340; farm stands everywhere in season; and the Green Dragon on Fridays, where the whoopie pie is the traditional walking-around food.
The Dessert Crawl
Do both in one morning: market open → whoopie pie immediately (quality control) → drive Route 340 with stand stops → smorgasbord lunch, saving room for wet-bottom shoofly at the pie table. The full eating map is in the Lancaster food guide, and the deepest version of PA Dutch baking happens where it was invented — at an Amish family's own table:
Downtown's modern kitchens play with both classics too — the guided tasting walk usually includes the evidence:
