Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies

Who remembers whoopie pies? They were all the rage five or six years ago; a friend gave me a whoopie pie baking tin and recipe book and I made  walnut whip and chocolate ones decorated to look like Christmas puddings.

I loved the taste and texture, somewhere between cake and a soft cookie, so when I went down to see my family one weekend in August I decided to make some to take with me. I wanted to cater for a dad who doesn't eat chocolate and a husband who doesn't eat much cake unless it is chocolate - there are a few other things he likes so I quickly settled on toffee.

There is a recipe in The Whoopie Pie Book by Claire Ptak for salty caramel whoopies; she suggests you serve it with her caramel Swiss buttercream, but that uses raw egg whites and my sister is pregnant. I actually had some salted caramel icing sugar from Sugar and Crumbs so decided to use that.

I got about 9 large whoopie pies out of the mixture - even when I try to make them smaller, they seem to turn out huge!

You need:
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
125g butter
120ml whole milk
200g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the milk, then remove from the heat.

Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla in a bowl then mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Pour in the milk mixture and stir until combined. Chill in the fridge for 30 mins. Meanwhile preheat oven to 180C.

Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper and drop equal-sized spoonfuls of the batter onto the paper, spaced well apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until risen but still slightly soft. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the filling, I beat the pre-flavoured salted caramel icing sugar with some margarine and used it to sandwich the whoopie pies together.

They may not be the prettiest to look at, but tasted great!

Walnut Whip Whoopie Pies

It's been a while since I've made - or even come across - any whoopie pies, once touted as the 'new cupcake', so when the letter W came up for this month's Alphabakes, I thought it would be a great thing to bake.

I have a recipe book entirely dedicated to whoopie pies, called - originally enough - The Whoopie Pie Book, by Claire Ptak of Violet bakery. Flicking through, I came across the perfect bake for a triple W whammy - the Walnut Whip Whoopie! I don't know if anyone outside the UK has had these, they are a chocolate pyramid filled with marshmallow with a walnut half on top. They were my grandmother's favourite and are absolutely yummy!

Ingredients:

300g plain flour

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1/2 tsp salt

125g butter, softened

200g sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

200ml buttermilk

100g walnuts, ground, plus extra for decorating

100g ground almonds

Whoopie pies are fairly simple to make: mix flour, bicarb of soda and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar, add egg and mix well.

Grind some walnuts

Mix the buttermilk and vanilla and add half to the butter mixture. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients other than the nuts. Pour in the remaining buttermilk and mix, then fold in the nuts. Chill the mixture for 30 mins.

Place a spoonful into your whoopie pie tin (thanks David!) or onto a baking tray. Bake for around 10 minutes and leave to cool.

I did attempt to make the vanilla swiss buttercream recipe from the book, which involves whisking egg whites, sugar and golden syrup over a pan of simmering water, but I obviously did something wrong as the mixture stayed really runny and I couldn't use it to sandwich the whoopie pies together. I took some pretty pictures anyway :-)

In the end I resorted to a standard buttercream to sandwich the whoopie pies together. To make them look like walnut whips, I piped a small swirl of chocolate buttercream on top and placed a walnut half on top.

I took these on a picnic with my boyfriend's family and friends - which was eaten largely huddled under coats and blankets as the weather was rubbish, but we were there to see an outdoor concert and by darn it, we're British and that's just what we do! Anyway, these would also be good for a bake sale as they are individually portioned, so I am sending this in to Tea Time Treats as their theme for June is cake stall cakes and bakes. This month the challenge is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage; her co-host is Kate from What Kate Baked.

As it's a triple W whammy I'm also sending it into Alphabakes, which I am hosting - our letter this month is W, and there's a prize (only available for entrants in the UK). Check out the rules here if you fancy taking part!

I am updating this to send to Cooking Around the World, as their challenge this month (for which they accept old posts) is American food, and whoopie pies originated in America.

Whoopie pies

Have you heard of Whoopie pies before? In 2010 they were being described as the latest craze in America - the new cupcake! And having made - and eaten - them, I can see why!

A whoopie pie is kind of a cross between a cookie and a cake, with a buttercream-type filling sandwiched in the middle. Apparently they were a tradition among the Amish community, who would bake them for farmers' lunch boxes. When the farmers opened their lunch and saw what their wives had given them, they would shout "whoopie!".

I'd wanted to try them for a while then my friend BakingAddict posted a recipe on her website and I decided to follow her lead. I'm sure she won't mind if I share her recipe with you here!

http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-whoopie-pie.html

The pies are pretty easy to make, though they were larger than I expected - I probably used too big a spoonful on the baking sheet not realising how much they would spread. Not that I minded!

Because it was nearly Christmas I decided to make them a little festive. The chocolate colour reminded me a little of a Christmas pudding, so I made some simple white icing and spread it over the top, and added a little edible holly decoration I had bought along with some other cake bits online. I thought they looked pretty cute, and in a pretty Christmas box they made good gifts for my boyfriend's family!