We’ve been home from America for a while now, but some places — and some foods — have stayed with us.
One of those places is Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and one of those foods is the incredible blueberry crumb pie we tried at Shady Maple.
So today, we’re bringing a little piece of Pennsylvania home to Britain and attempting to recreate it ourselves!
But this became about much more than making a pie.
Our time in Pennsylvania Dutch Country was unlike anything we’d experienced before. After weeks travelling through huge American cities, suddenly we were surrounded by farmland, horse-drawn buggies, roadside produce stands, honesty boxes, fresh eggs, flowers and a completely different pace of life.
We talk about our experiences around the Amish and Mennonite communities, what surprised us as Brits, some of the things we learned along the way, and the remarkable story of how Shady Maple grew from a small roadside produce stand into the enormous place we visited today.
And, as you’ll see, filming this one didn’t go entirely as expected…
But after everything that happened, there was still one important question:
Could a homemade blueberry crumb pie actually take us back to Pennsylvania?
Thank you for continuing to experience America with us — even when we’re back home in Britain!
👇 We’d love to hear from you:
If you’re from Pennsylvania, what food instantly reminds you of home? And if you’ve visited Lancaster County or Shady Maple, what memories do you have of it?
#ShadyMaple #Pennsylvania #BritishTryAmericanFood
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Pennsylvania friends — we need you for this one!
What food instantly takes YOU back home? It doesn't have to be something famous or something tourists would know about — we're especially interested in the dishes your parents or grandparents made that just taste like Pennsylvania to you. ❤
And if you've been to Shady Maple or spent time around Lancaster County, tell us your memories below. We absolutely loved our time there and genuinely hadn't experienced anywhere quite like it before.
I saw that white shirt and blueberry pie, and I went into panic mode. lol Good luck in big girl school sweetie.
I know you don't want to think about it now, but one day your kids will have kids and you two are set to be the most epic grandparents ever.
You don’t need that much flour when rolling out the pie dough.
Thats way too much!
Oh my gosh, Nikita. Be so proud of yourself. It's a beautiful pie. And 100% homemade.
Blueberry pie is excellent. One of my favorites, yours looked very tasty.
That pie looked so yummy and we love the crumb topping. You seem to really enjoy baking and you are good at it. Well done.
Looks so good! ❤
2:40 We have those all over rural New York as well. I've got a few that I visit on the regular.
Oh don't worry. You'll find a way to fill up that fridge :3
Sorry about the thooth ,bro.
I’m excited to see that you have a proper pie pan!
That is one of the things that people outside the US don’t get right. A pie pan has angled sides, not straight sides.
And you got the filling to crust ratio right. A pie is not a tart. A pie has a lot more filling.
Good job! Excellent pie!
Elana and Alyssa are just adorbs! Elana looks like a little girl David with hints of Nakita, and Alyssa looks like a tiny Nakita. Y’all are such a fun family. It makes me smile to watch you guys. Thank you.
That looks so delicious! Good job!
Oh! They Fruit Did Break Down Nicely! I was worried it might not without risking or blending. Good Job Ma'am! 💃🫐🫐🥣🥧👌
Shady Maple is for sure using mixers and food processors.
Leaf lard makes the best pastry, pie crust, biscuits so on. Use butter in or on the topping.
You do an excellent job with things you've not done before.
That pie looks so pretty! Well done ❤
Nikita, your pie looks fantastic and the recipe looks right. 👍🏻
You want to be careful if you use a blender or beaters or a food processor to mix your pie crust as they can over work the dough. This can lead to over developing the gluten in the flour and a tough pie crust, which you don’t want. Mixing the dough until it just comes together is what you want.
My grandma used to make an incredibly flaky pie crust that would literally melt in your mouth. She must have used all lard to get such a light, flaky crust. Try experimenting with lard, shortening, and/or butter and see what makes the best crust for the type of pie you are making. Also, don’t be afraid of trying unusual ingredients such as cheese in your pie crust (cheddar or cream cheese). The results may pleasantly surprise you.
The recipe you used can be used as a generic fruit pie recipe, adjusting for the sweetness and the amount of liquid in the fruit that you are using.
Here’s a fun challenge for you. How about making some fruit pies with mixed fruit, such as a mixed berry pie, or a peach and blueberry pie. Think of fruit harvests on the farm where you don’t have enough of one type of fruit for a whole pie, so you mix in another fruit to fill up the pie. The variations are endlessly delicious.😋
Oh, by the way, we usually serve fruit pies with vanilla ice cream (à la mode) (or sometimes sour cream). The whipped cream usually goes on cream pies or custard pies. Pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, and pecan pie are usually served with whipped cream. These rules are not hardened fast rules. More like guidelines. No one would mind if you prefer whipped cream on your apple pie or peach pie, or ice cream on your pumpkin pie or pecan pie. It’s all good. 😉
Yeah, I always use butter & lard combo for my pie crusts, for taste and flakiness. I learned that decades ago from Alton Brown on Food Network. I attended college at Gainesville, and in May & June, I would head over to the blueberry farms that had the U-Picks, and one of them, one season gave out a fresh blueberry pie recipe. I still make it and my friends here in Colorado love it! I also used lemon juice in the blueberry filling.
I live about 1-1/2 to 2 hours drive from Shady Maple. I have been there but it was several decades ago when I was a teenager, so I don't have many clear memories left of the place.
You asked for Pennsylvania dishes. I think these two deserts qualify. The first one is Shoofly Pie, and the second is Funny Cake. I know those both originated in the Pennsylvania Dutch community. Recipes for both are available through a quick internet search.
I also remember a food from my childhood, although I don't know if it is local to Pennsylvania or not. It is called Barbecue Cups, and is more of a savory dinner type of food. It requires a type of pastry dough that you may remember eating as part of Biscuits And Gravy (I use Pillsbury Grands), but I'm not certain if you have convenient access to something similar in the UK or not.
Not a strictly Pennsylvania type of food, but definitely very stereotypical American, is a Casserole. There are an almost infinite variety of recipes for such a dish, therefore I can't get specific. Only that it involves mashed potatoes or noodles, some type of creamy liquid (soup, gravy, milk, etc.) and whatever meats and/or vegetables you have on hand, placed in a deep baking dish, sometimes layered, sometimes topped with bread crumbs, crumbled crackers, or crumbled potato chips (crisps), then baked. It became popular in the US during WWII when times were lean and you fed your family with whatever you had available. I'm sure the internet has a variety of recipes for this too.
I was taught to cook by my aunt and the way we made pie dough was half lard and half butter, keep it cold, don't overwork it so it doesn't get tough.
If the pie looks pretty it will be “tough”. To get a pie crust to hold together and be pretty it is either overworked or too wet. Ugly homemade pie crusts are the best!
Love BB pie but it needs to be made with real, fresh berries as you did (not the canned stuff). Served warm….mmmmm.. I have always had it with two pie crusts (bottom/top) – not with the crumble top you made which looks absolutely lovely.
Pastry on pies is almost always called the crust. Not pastry,
Amish is pronounced Ah-mish. Not Am-ish.
My Aunt Dawn made "Crumby Apple Pie" with the crumb top.
I'm from Indiana, cool shirt!!!
I live 3.3 miles from Shady Maple. My husband was at the grocery store there at Shady Maple last night. I'm glad you enjoyed our County. We've been here 23 years and still love it here.
Blueberry crumb pie, and blueberry peach crumb pie are my favorite!
Lifelong Pennsylvanian here. Family has Scots Irish roots. Favorite family meals are my mom’s pot roast. Hers was so rich tasting & truly comfort food. Served with buttered carrots, buttery mashed potatoes, cole slaw. So good. Chocolate cake for dessert. Heaven.
– Lard makes the best pie crust. Hand's down. There's no flavor to the lard. Makes the flakiest pie crust.
– Self-serve roadside produce and flower booths are everywhere in rural America. Not just the Amish. I have them here in N MN neighborhood for eggs, baked goods, flowers, garden produce. Have done it myself for eggs, and it works great. I never lost anything, and usually ended up with people leaving extra money.
– Take a little more time decoratively pinching your crust edges. It's a woman's pride.
– You DON'T want to use a blender for your crumble. It makes it too fine.
– I would NEVER screw up the flavor by throwing lemon or cinnamon into a blueberry pie filling. Just a little sugar, and flour to thicken the juice. That's a lot more flour than I'd use.
– Put something under the pie tin to catch any drippings. Blueberry pie is notorious for running over in the oven.
– I'm spoiled here in N Minnesota. We pick and use wild blueberries, and the flavor is 10X the flavor of domestic.
– Blueberry pie is common all over America.
– Too much crumble on top for me. NO ice cream or whipped cream on blueberry pie. It just dilutes the flavor of the fruit.
Elana has learned the happy food dance from Daddy!
🥧 🍰 looks amazing 😊💕
The Mennonites are a version of the Amish but they have all types of Mennonite from ultra conservative to more liberal you can see the difference in the women’s dresses old order Mennonite wear flowered dresses and Amish wear solid color dresses
Amish drive Buggy’s not carts
The lemon juice in fruit pies is primarily to keep the fruit from turning brown. Blueberries in particular are bad about it after the pie has cooked, or if you make a blueberry puree and mix it into a cheesecake or something, good chance it goes from the red/purple color to brown once it comes out of the oven if you don't have enough lemon juice in it.