Whoopie pies

Such a silly name. They originate from the Pennsylvania Amish, apparently, and one theory suggests they name comes from the utterance made by a hard-working farmer when he found one in his packed lunch. Or something.

Anyway, supposedly they’re trendy. Like cupcakes. Or trendier than cupcakes. There’s a whole feature about their rise to fame here in the New York Times, from March 2009 (a feature that may well disappear behind a paywall in the near future).

Well, they’ve made that transition to Britain now too. Briefly, a whoopie pie consists of two soft layers that are half-way between a cookie and a sponge cake, sandwiched with a sweet filling. I first tried one from the Hummingbird Bakery, and in truth the cookie/cake bit was a bit dry and hard, so when you bit it, it just squished all the filling out, making it a bit of a challenge to eat with any decorum.

These ones I made were a chocolate variety from a recipe from The Times, which also ran this story (that may likewise be disappearing behind a paywall soon). The recipe was a bit vague and some of the quantities were iffy, so here it is slightly revised.

115g unsalted butter, softened
200g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla essence
225ml buttermilk (or yogurt/milk blend)
60g cocoa powder
5g bicarbonate of soda
190g plain flour

Filling:
200g cream cheese (Philadelphia or similar)
75g butter
150g sifted icing sugar
1 t vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 200C and line three baking trays with greaseproof paper. Give the paper a quick wipe with butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the egg. You can do this with an electric hand-blender.

Add the vanilla essence to the buttermilk. If you can’t get buttermilk, blend a few tablespoons of yogurt with (whole) milk.

Sift the cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and flour into another bowl.

Add half the flour in to the creamed butter mix, and blend. Then add half the buttermilk (or yogurt/milk). Add the rest of the flour and mix. Then the rest of the buttermilk, and mix under it’s all well-combined.

Put 6 desert spoonfuls onto each baking sheet, well-spaced as they spread a bit.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove, allow to cool for a few minutes on the trays, then transfer to a rack and leave until totally cool.

Make the filling by creaming together the softened butter and icing sugar, then blending in the cream cheese and vanilla. You can do this with an electric hand blender, but don’t over-mix.

Sandwich the cookie/cakes generously with the filling.