Whoopie Pies

** I apologize for the bad photos. It was late at night and I took them. Photo Tip: NEVER take photos at night by using kitchen lights!

The Whoopie Pie. Now what the heck is a Whoopie Pie? Well, think about it this way, it's simply a chocolate cake turned into a cookie sandwich. It's soft like a cake and yet portable like a cookie. Whoever came up with this idea must be a genius. This was definitely my first time making a whoopie pie, let alone, eating one for the first time. Recently, I searched the internet for a recipe for a whoopie pie and a plethora of recipes came up. In determining which I wanted to try, I looked at the pictures that were displayed for the recipe. I saw some that were the size of the tops of the muffins bought at costco, some had weird cracks in them and finally, the recipe I used, which looked normal. They weren't huge, yet weren't small and gave me the feeling that I wanted to grab one and eat it. Well, I made the whoopie pie so that was done. Now the filling. This recipe called for a buttercream. I personally HATE homemade buttercream. Maybe it's just that I find the buttercream to have a strange cornstarch taste due to the powdered sugar or it's the thought of essentially eating a stick of butter on these whoopie pies. Both are GROSS! So, I went to another recipe to see what filling they used and they had a 7-minute frosting. It didn't involved powdered sugar, which was a plus, but it was super complicated so I decided not to go forward with it. Then, after reading the recipe for the 7-minute frosting, I realized that it was practically the same ingredients and same method that you use to make marshmallows. Being the smart person I am, I looked in my cupboard and voila, there was marshmallow fluff. So, I filled my whoopie pies with marshmallow fluff. The result was ehhh. There was something definitely lacking. The cake part didn't have that strong chocolately taste that I want and the marshmallow fluff didn't really add anything but sweetness. Overall, this recipe needs some serious tweaking. If you would like to try this recipe yourself, here it is.

Whoopie Pies
makes approx. 30 cookies
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter , room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. whisk together until well combined and set aside.
In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the brown sugar until creamy and fluffy. about 3 mins. Add the egg and beat until well combined. add the flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, starting and ending with the flour. Scrape down the bowl several times, ensuring that everything is well combined. Mix just until all the ingredients are combined, do not over mix.
Using a pastry bag fitted with a large circle tip, pipe out the batter in 1 1/2 inch circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving at least 1 inch between each.
Dip your finger in water and shake off excess. With your wet finger, gentley press down the top of each cookie.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 mins, until they are puffed. Using a metal spatula, transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream
1/4 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cream

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar. Start on low speed until combined and then increase speed to medium and beat for approx. 3 mins. Add vanilla and cream and beat again. About 1 min more.

Assembly
Match up cookies in like sized pairs. Pipe out or spoon buttercream on one side and sandwich with the other.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
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