I may not completely understand why these little treats are called Whoopie Pies, since they seem to be much more of a cake than a pie, but I do know that they're delicious and extremely easy to make. There are several claims as to the actual origin and name of the beloved whoopie pie, which you can read about here. Ever since our little adventure to the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, and our whoopie pies from The Flying Monkey, I knew I had to try making some at home. You should too.
There are a lot of different recipes available for whoopie pies. I tried several, and finally got to my version for these Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies. I felt that these had the best chocolate flavor, and also were extremely nice and puffy. Using shortening makes the cakes puffier than if you used all butter or a butter-shortening mixture. Using half butter and half shortening works okay, but your cakes will be much flatter, looking more like a cookie than what I was going for.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies
- Yield: About 24 assembled pies 1x
Ingredients
For the cakes:
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder (my favorite is Penzey's Dutch-processed cocoa)
- 1-½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the filling:
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats, or parchment paper.
- Cream sugar and shortening in an electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- In alternating additions, add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the butter/shortening mixture. Mix until well combined.
- Drop rounded tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets.(Using a medium cookie scoop works very well.)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes, until tops spring back when pressed gently.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, beat all the filling ingredients together until smooth, light, and fluffy.
- Spread a rounded tablespoon of the filling (cookie scoop works great here too) onto the flat side of one cake and sandwich it together with a second cake.
Notes
Note: Using shortening makes the cakes puffier than if you used butter or a butter-shortening mixture. Using half butter and half shortening works okay, but your cakes will be much flatter, looking more like a cookie.
thehungrymum
ok - these look amazing and I am off to dust off my whoopie pie tin right NOW to make some! Thanks for the inspiration :)