Sarah Billingsley - Whoopie Pies : Dozens of Mix em, Match em, Eat em Up Recipes

Dozens of Mix em, Match em, Eat em Up Recipes by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell Photographs by Antonis Achilleos Bobs Red Mill is a registered trademark of Bobs Red Mill Natural Foods; Crisco vegetable shortening is a registered trademark of Procter & Gamble; Ener-G Egg Replacement Powder is a registered trademark of Ener-G Foods, Inc; Fritos is a registered trademark of Frito-Lay North America, Inc.; Heath Bar candy is a registered trademark of the Hershey Company; Hersheys Syrup is a registered trademark of the Hershey Company; Marshmallow Fluff is a registered trademark of Durkee-Mower, Inc; Nutella hazelnut spread is a registered trademark of Ferrero U.S.A., Inc; Ovaltine is a registered trademark of Associated British Foods PLC; Silpat is a registered trademark of Demarle, Inc.; Pixy Stix is a registered trademark of Socit des Produits Nestl; Red Hots cinnamon-flavored candies are a registered trademark of Ferrara Pan Candy Company, Inc.; Smart Balance Buttery Spread is a registered trademark of Smart Balance, Inc; Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Better Than Sour Cream are registered trademarks of Tofutti Brands, Inc.; Whoppers malted milk balls are a registered trademark of the Hershey Company. Dedicated to Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, where we ate our first whoopie pies (ahem, gobs!) and became smitten. Let our obsession be your obsession. Thanks to: Amys daughter, Maxine, who selflessly taste-tested every whoopie pie we baked. Kevin Townsend, for mining his childhood memories so we could re-create the classic marshmallow cream filling. We hope it lives up to his high expectations.

Joel Rosenblatt, who declared whoopie pies junk but nevertheless encouraged this pastry project when it took over both his kitchen and his woman. Ron and Karen Billingsley, for encouraging all childhood baking experiments, even chocolate chip omelets. A major shout-out to all the supporters and tasters at Chronicle Books: You flocked from every corner of the building. We are all a bit fatter and merrier now.

What is a whoopie pie? For those living in the Northeast (for our purposes, roughly from Pennsylvania to Maine), the whoopie pie (or gob) is a familiar treat. Not quite a sandwich cookie, not quite a cake, whoopie pies are marked by two characteristics: their soft, rounded shape and a generous amount of creamy filling.

If your treat is flat or thinly filled, were sorry to say that its not a proper whoopie pie. The origin of both the name and the treat are murky (though we offer some theories throughout this book). What we do know is that the classic and overall favorite variety of whoopie pie is chocolate cake with marshmallow filling. This is the whoopie most likely to be found next to cash registers at mom-and-pop shops, gas stations, and diners throughout the region, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. (Eating the moist whoopie skin stuck to the plastic is a unique pleasure, especially if your mom makes you share your whoopie pie with your brother or sister.) Flavors such as vanilla, chocolate chip, and especially pumpkin are also common. Who are these authors? Amy honed her whoopie tasting skills while growing up in Massachusetts.

In her small hometown south of Boston, whoopies were featured at every school bake sale, and she was always first in line to buy one. And since her mother didnt make whoopie pies at home (Amys mom is a wonderful baker; shes just not a whoopie pie baker), Amy ruthlessly tried to befriend anyone in the neighborhood with a mom who did. As an adult, she has found them in such diverse locations as a little grocery store in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, an Arco gas station just off the interstate highway in New Hampshire, and an old-fashioned country store on Cape Cod. Sarah explored traditional gob territory across Pennsylvania, from farm-flat Lancaster to the mountainous Laurel Highlands and Blue Knob Ski Resort, near Johnstown. Despite Pittsburghers affection for gut-busting sandwiches, gobs are not common in this corner of the state (Pittsburgh loves its dainty Polish and Italian cookies). What is this book? In Whoopie Pies, we recreated the classic whoopie pie, with its dark chocolaty cake and creamy marshmallow filling. What is this book? In Whoopie Pies, we recreated the classic whoopie pie, with its dark chocolaty cake and creamy marshmallow filling.

And we also included its counterpart luscious vanilla with a rich chocolate buttercream filling. We let our imaginations run wild and came up with great flavor combinations like banana with salty peanut butter filling; pistachio-cardamom with rosewater buttercream; oatmeal with maple filling; even jalapeno-cornbread with bacon-chive goat cheese filling. In fact, we got so caught up in the nearly endless combinations that we organized the recipes in two sections: The Cakes and The Creamy Fillings. We want you to mix and match, so weve given you a nice, long list of possible cake and filling combinations to get you started. The real fun is in mixing and matching the flavors yourselves. Coconut cream filling in a lemon whoopie? Why the heck not? Our hope is that you learn what we did long ago: Once you go whoopie, youll never go back.

We both ended up living in San Francisco, a food lovers paradise, but one distinctly devoid of whoopie pies/gobs. As cookbook editors (and enthusiastic home bakers), it seemed almost inevitable that we would not only rhapsodize about these treats of our youth but also come to the conclusion that we should write an entire cookbook on the subject. (And refer to them throughout as whoopie pies, which we both agree is the cuter name.)

We are pretty lazy bakers. Sure, we instruct the reader to sift the flour and other dry ingredients, but if you dont, it wont matter too much. We also have other bad baking habits, like reusing our parchment paper and eyeballing measurements for vanilla and lemon zest. Nothing bad has happened to us yet.

Rest assured, as long as you keep an eye on the cakes while theyre in the oven and have a little fun, youre guaranteed a pretty wonderful whoopie pie.

The cake component of the whoopie pies can be baked in advance and frozen. Simply bake the cakes as instructed in the recipe, cool them completely, and transfer them to a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet with the cakes in the freezer for 1 hour, at which point the cakes will be frozen enough to be stored in a resealable plastic freezer bag without sticking. You can store them in the freezer for up to 1 month. Most buttercream, ganache, and cream cheese fillings can be made ahead and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Classic Marshmallow and Whipped Chocolate Ganache fillings do not store well and are best used the same day. When you are ready to assemble the whoopie pies (page 41), remove the cakes from the freezer and defrost at room temperature for at least 2 hours before filling. Remove the creamy fillings from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature about 1 hour before using.

Whoopie pies are best eaten within a day of making them because they can be a challenge to store. They tend to stick to each other when stacked, so if you need to store them for a few days, find a wide, shallow container so they can be arranged in one layer. If stacking is your only option, thats okay.