Top Three Pennsylvania Dutch Desserts

So our time in Souderton, PA was a grand one. We raced an epic race, we stayed with a wonderful couple of Pennsylvania natives, and we were exposed to several traditional Pennsylvania Dutch desserts. In fact, we were exposed to so much of these glorious confections, I now consider myself and expert. Thus, in no particular order, I give you:

THE TOP THREE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH DESERTS

SHOO-FLY PIE
This molasses-based concoction is utterly delectable. Apparently, shoo-fly pie was named so due to its ability to attract flies when placed on an open window-sill in order to cool after baking. While I find this to be a trait held by just about any pie worth its crust, the name is catchy nonetheless, no? The pie consists of a traditional pie crust, a gooey molasses bottom layer, topped with a lighter molasses based cake, and covered in graham cracker crumbs.
FUNNY CAKE PIE

A funny cake was more discovered than it was invented. Apparently, as legend goes, someone wanted to make a cake with chocolate on top, so they took some vanilla cake batter and put chocolate on top -- but after they baked LOW AND BEHOLD, THE CHOCOLATE SUNK THROUGH THE CAKE, FORMING A LAYER BENEATH THE CAKE BATTER!!! This was found to be so humorous (chocolate sinking through cake batter? What a knee-slapper, huh?) that they named it the Funny Cake Pie. It's got gooey chocolate on the bottom, vanilla cake on top, and a glaze of, you guessed it, more chocolate.


GROUND CHERRY PIE

This one is pretty self explanatory: it's a fruit pie made with a ground cherries, a local staple. Ground cherries are about the size of large blueberries, they grow on the ground, and come wrapped in a thin papery husk. They taste a lot like grapes, and have a texture similar to a tomatillo (lots of tiny seeds, but rather juicy).