Whoopie Pies

My friend had a (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.  I wanted to bring something small that the guests could eat even after a large turkey dinner - and it was a HUGE dinner (2 turkeys, ham, salmon, ribs, 2 brussels spout dishes, beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, dressing, bread, vegetarian pie, 2 gravies, and 2 tables to lay it out on!). A cake seemed too much, and I figured that there would already be a pie (and yes, there were 2 huge pumpkin pies).  So I thought about whoopie pies!  I had never made them before, but I love saying “whoopie pie”! Plus, they are fairly bite size and cute!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Whoopie Pies

Adapted from here.

Makes 19 whoopie pies.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk – shaken

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup salted butter – room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

Directions

1.       Preheat oven 350 degrees.

2.       Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

3.       In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt

4.       In a cup, mix buttermilk and vanilla

5.       In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy.

6.       Add egg and beat until mixed.

7.       Add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk, and mixing between additions.

8.       Spoon (2 Tablespoon sized portions) onto cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

9. Cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

Before baking.

After baking.

Assembly

Pipe filling on a cookie and sandwich it with another cookie.  I used left over frosting from other baking projects (vanilla buttercream, raspberry buttercream, cream cheese frosting, and peanut butter cream cheese frosting), but next time I’ll try this boiled frosting. Add sprinkles to the exposed frosting.

Frosting in piping bags and sprinkles.

Clockwise from top right: vanilla buttercream, raspberry buttercream, cream cheese frosting, peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

Verdict: These were pretty delicious with a variety of fillings for people to choose from. The chocolate layers had great flavour and moist texture.  Next time, I’ll pipe the layers so that they’re all the same size and shape!