Whoop(ie) there it is!

After growing up in New England where whoopie pies are plentiful and tasty, I've been saddened by the rare and lousy whoopie pie options here in the Mid-Atlantic.  Recently, I wandered into a local, divine-smelling bakery and saw my long lost whoopie pies!  I was so excited to see them that I purchased one and went outside to chow down and was once again disappointed.  The cake was too dry, the frosting too sweet.  Thus, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own.  I followed this recipe at Epicurious and was very happy with the results.

Cast of Characters:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (I only had Hershey's Cocoa on hand and it worked fine)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 cups marshmallow cream such as Marshmallow Fluff

1) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.   Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in one bowl.  In a separate small bowl, combine the buttermilk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

2) In a stand mixer bowl, combine 1 stick of softened butter with the brown sugar and mix on medium until fluffy (this took me 3-4 minutes on my KitchenAid mixer's speed 6).

3) Add the egg to the butter and brown sugar and mix until blended.  Decrease the mixer speed to low.  Alternate adding the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, etc) and the buttermilk mixture into the bowl, mix until smooth (this took 5 or so minutes.)  Note: the batter will not be smooth like cake mix.  To me, it looked like chocolate mousse, with the texture of mousse/taffy i.e. the dough is slightly sticky.

   

4)  Grease two baking sheets and using a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop the mix onto the baking sheets.  I made 23 cookies from my dough, you should be able to get 24.

5) Place cookies in the oven for 12 minutes; place one sheet on the bottom rung, the other on the top.  Switch these sheets 6 minutes in.  Cool the cookies on a wire rack until they are completely cool. 

6)  In the meantime, whip up your frosting.  Place the remaining stick of softened butter, confectioner's sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 cups of fluff in your mixing bowl and mix on medium until creamy (approximately 4-5 minutes.)

7)  Frost half of your cookies.  Note, do not sandwich them together unless you are sure you are happy with the amount of frosting on each sandwich.  Pulling them apart is not easy, and will create a mess.

8) Store in an airtight container on wax paper.  I really like these whoopie pies; the sandwich cakes are very soft and moist and the frosting is smooth but not overly sweet.  The ratio of cake to frosting in this recipe is also very generous.  After a second round of frosting, I still had some left over.  

9)  Chow down!  May I suggest a glass of milk to accompany your pie?  Happy Eating! 

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