Whoopee for Whoopie Pies

Janet here: I'm not sure why I never made whoopie pies when our kids were little. I mean it seems like a no-brainer for someone who likes to bake, has a bit of a cupcake fetish, and who was a major Ring Ding, Yodels kind of gal as a child. But I didn't. In fact I'm not sure I even knew they existed until fairly recently.

At any rate, I've had kind of a fixation about them ever since learning about them. I even went out and bought a whoopie pie baking tin, whose holes are decidedly thinner than traditional cupcake baking tins — this from the woman who doesn't own a food processor. Maybe it's a mid-life thing.

Anyway, I'm happy to report this version is very tasty, according to the dessert eaters in our house. I did not make the more common fluff filling because it just seemed weird and I've never been that big a marshmallow fluff fan (I do, however, love s'mores). So I made a cream cheese icing instead. Anyway, hope you enjoy them. I plan to be experimenting with a whole lot of different types — carrot cake with cream cheese filling seems particularly interesting at the moment. After all, I bought the tin; now I have to justify it.

Whoopie Pies
makes 12 pies

ingredients
for the pies
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg

for the filling
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla

method

For the pies: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter, egg, vanilla and brown sugar in a mixing bowl with a beater (or whatever electric device you like to use). Add in the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Beat until smooth. Add the buttermilk and beat until creamy. Don't overmix.

Fill each whoopie pie spot in the whoopie pan 2/3 full. These tins are thinner than cupcake cooking tins and help you automatically create the right size pie. I imagine you could use a cupcake tin too, but it would probably be harder to get the pies to be a uniform size and thickness. Bake for 11 minutes. Place on a tray to cool.

For the filling: Beat together all the ingredients and then spread between the cooled pies. Try to just eat one.

Rachel here: Ok, so we're still working our way through the dozens of mookies my mom made us when she came to visit after M was born. While I appreciate the bounty of sugary and chocolaty goodness that she left us with, I find myself looking at the mookies in my fridge and wondering why they're not whoopie pies. That tin will fit in your carry-on bag, right Ma? Because I'm feeling like it needs to accompany you out here on your next visit.