Whoopie Pies

I thought I ought to test out some of the recipes from the recipe books that seem to have proliferated on my kitchen window sill, so I made a start with ‘The Whoopie Pie Book’ by Claire Ptak.

What is a Whoopie Pie, you may well ask. Well they’re not pies at all, they’re cakes, basically two mounds of sponge which are sandwiched together with a creamy filling such as buttercream.

I first heard about Whoopie Pies about a year ago when they were being lauded as the new cupcake (cupcakes being so last year!). Well I don’t think they are going to replace the cupcake any time soon as they don’t offer the same possibilities for decoration and are a little less practical than cupcakes (if a cake can ever be practical!). However they are fun little (or large) sweet treats that anyone can have a go at making without going too wrong. They’re not meant to be pretty things,  their main aim in life is just cakey squishy loveliness.

Claire Ptak’s book is visually attractive and it pretty much does what is says on the tin.  There’s over 120 pages of whoopie pie recipes, some recipes for brownies, cookies and macaroons and a helpful section at the end of the book on techniques and equipment. I like recipe books that have a picture for each recipe and this has that. It gives you an idea of what you’re aiming for even if you don’t get there first time.

I fancied trying something a little different from the normal chocolate or vanilla so I opted for the Salty Caramel Whoopie. The recipe is fairly straight forward, you beat together brown sugar, and eggs, add in the dry ingredients and then mix in a cooled mixture of melted butter and milk. You then chill the batter for 30 minutes. You drop scoops of batter on a baking tray and then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. You then let them cool on a rack.

The book says you should sandwich together the Whoopie halves with Caramel Swiss Buttercream. This requires double cream, sugar, butter and egg whites.  I had some spare buttercream left over from an order so I used this instead but I added little crumbs of toffee to give it a caramel taste. I topped off the pies with some melted milk chocolate and a sprinkle of toffee crumbs.

I wasn’t totally happy with my first attempt at this recipe as the sponge didn’t rise as high as I would have liked. I think I probably didn’t beat the sugar and egg mixture for long enough. However, they did taste good and I’ll have another go soon to get the pies to rise more.