Whoopie Pies are something that I had not heard about. But I came across them as I was looking around for something to bake. It seems, if what I read is true, that these are becoming increasingly popular. The version I decided to make is heavy on the chocolate. I wasn’t sure about the filling for the middle, so I experimented and found that using just marshmellow is very messy, as you have to heat a marshmallow on the bottom half of the pie, then place the top half on top. Getting it just right, so that the marshmallow doesn’t drip all over the sides is very hit and miss. So I opted for a different filling, with marshmallow cream, sugar, butter and vanilla extract. That worked very well indeed and, to my taste is much preferable to the marshmallow alone.
The recipe I followed, from The Food Network is an easy one to follow. My only change was that I made my pies larger, actually about double in size I think, and so only made 9 pies, but that is certainly enough for my purposes. I also increased the cooking time to 9 minutes, because of the larger size. The filling, as I mentioned earlier, is also different.
For the recipe, shown below, I will leave the instructions as per the Food Network site, as people can decide for themselves whether to do as I did. But I will add my alternative to the filling at the bottom.
Ingredients:
- Ingredients
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder, such as Hershey’s or Scharffen Berger
- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons fine salt
- 18 large marshmallows, (not minis)(see my alternative below)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet.
- Put the unsweetened and semisweet chocolates and butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl; heat at 75 percent power until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir, and continue to microwave until completely melted, about 2 minutes more. (Alternatively, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching the water, and stir occasionally until melted and smooth.)
- Whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla into the chocolate mixture until smooth.
- Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into another bowl. Gradually whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until moistened. Switch to a rubber spatula and finish folding the batter together; take care not to over-mix.
- Use a small cookie scoop or spoon to drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto the prepared pan. Repeat to make 36 cookies, spacing them about 1-inch apart. Bake until the cookies spring back when lightly touched, about 6 minutes.
- Cool the cookies slightly. Transfer half of the cookies to a rack. Turn the remaining cookies on the pan over, so they lay flat side up. Place a marshmallow on top of each flipped cookie and return pan to the oven. Cook just until the marshmallow begins to soften and puff, about 3 minutes. Cool marshmallow topped cookies slightly, about 2 minutes. Top with the remaining cookies, pressing lightly to make sandwiches. Cool whoopee pies completely on wire racks. Serve.
- Store in tightly sealed container for up to 1 week.
Alternative filling:
- 1 stick (112 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 200 grams icing sugar
- one tub of marshmallow fluff
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all those ingredients together until creamy and smooth. Then it is ready to use instead of marshallow.