As popular as Whoopie Pies seem to be on the Internet, I hardly ever see them at school events or bake sales. We get a lot of cupcakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookies, but Whoopie Pies? Nope.
I guess people perceive them as too much work or forget about them altogether. I usually fall into the latter category, but last week was an exception. I'd been testing a few different Whoopie Pie recipes and Fuzz needed to take goodies to school party.
I'll never know if the kids liked them because about 10 minutes after Fuzz set down the bag, the whole thing disappeared (bag and all). But I liked them! This recipe gives you very puffy Chocolate Whoopie Pies with a high ratio of cake to filling. Also, this particular filling is made with 100% butter. Some recipes use shortening in the filling or a mix of butter and shortening. I actually like the fillings with a little bit of both, but since shelf-life and stability weren't issues here, I went with the butter recipe.
High Ratio Shortening Optional
A little about shortening. If you do need to make Whoopie Pies with a shortening based filling, go to a cake decorating store or order some high ratio shortening. It's the type professional cake decorators and bakers use, and the flavor and texture might remind you of the old school fluffy grocery store cupcake icing.
Update: I've added some additional photos along with an Irish Cream variation. Adding Irish Cream doesn't do much for the cake part of the cookie, but it tastes pretty good in the filling.
Also, as much as I like the all-butter filling it seems swapping out about ¼ cup of it for shortening gives the filling a better texture and shape. I've added a note about that in the recipe.
Some More Great Whoopie Pie Recipes
Recipe
Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 7.9 oz -- or weigh out equivalent White Lily all-purpose
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 4 tablespoons shortening, or just use more butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar (7 oz weight)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
Filling:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (8 oz)
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 7 oz container marshmallow cream
- 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Don’t use cooking spray or anything very slippery because it might cause the cookies to spread.
- Thoroughly mix together flour through cocoa and set aside
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening until creamy, then add the sugar and beat until well mixed. Beat in the vanilla, then add the egg and beat until fluffy, scraping sides of bowl often.
- Add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk alternately, stirring with a heavy duty scraper, until batter is smooth and thick.
- Drop batter by generously heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart (I usually can fit 12 per sheet on a 13x18 inch tray). Bake one sheet at a time for 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies are puffed, slightly cracked and set. Let cool on baking sheets for about five minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack.
- FILLING: Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in vanilla. Stir in marshmallow cream and beat until fully mixed in. Spoon between cookies. Better yet, put in a piping bag and pipe onto the cookies (much neater results). A heavy duty zipper bag with the bottom corner snipped off will also work.
- Wrap the cookies in plastic wrap.
Anna says
Judy, I should start calling them Gobs :). I like that name. I think the filling might work okay as a cupcake frosting because you could just dollop it on. It would probably be too stretchy and not smooth enough for a layer cake, but cupcakes should work. Another thing you could try is Ermine Frosting. Looks like I need to put this one in a recipe card format, but here's the link. https://www.cookiemadness.net/2011/03/06/cornstarch-frosting/
Judy says
Miss Anna, I was wondering if the filling would work as a frosting? I have never used marshmallow cream in my gobs filling recipes...I grew up with Pennsylvania roots, and whoopie pies were called gobs from my part of Pennsylvania. I was just thinking of making cupcakes for my son's birthday, who loves gobs, so I thought it would be a good frosting...what do you think?
Anna says
Allison, thanks for catching that. Confectioners' sugar is the only sugar. I just listed it twice. It should be
FILLING: Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in vanilla. Stir in marshmallow cream and beat until fully mixed in. Spoon between cookies. Better yet, put in a piping bag and pipe onto the cookies (much neater results). A heavy duty zipper bag with the bottom corner snipped off will also work.
allison says
the filling says beat together butter and sugar until creamy then add confectioner's sugar but there isn't any other sugar in the list of ingredients.
Anna says
Laura, thanks for the review! I have some Dutch cocoa so maybe I'll make a batch today. The photo needs updating anyway.
Laura says
Made these and got 5 star reviews from my boyfriend who grew up part time in Lancaster, PA and Maine (both laying claim to inventing the whoopie). The cake was SUPER moist (i baked them for 11 min) and for the filling i followed the 1/2 shortening 1/2 butter and he and his kids loved them!! I had to double the recipe to get 20 but i think i just made them too big. Great recipe though and would highly recommend dutch cocoa for the richest chocolate flavor 🙂
Anna says
Hi Nina,
Six is a good number! They also freeze well, so if you ever want to make more you can throw some in the freezer.
Nina says
Hello I enjoyed makeing the whoop
Pies I love bakeing I made 6 of those little
Boogers
Shannon M Wells says
These are absolutely amazing. I just use all butter, and they come out very moist
Carol says
If you use a convection oven you can make cookies on more than ray rack. Do you prefer one shelf baking over convection?
Stephanie says
High ratio shortening! Thank you!
Katrina says
Hmm, maybe I'll make some Whoopie Pies. Sam's birthday (7!) is this weekend and he told me he wants "the usual", pies, cookies and cupcakes. I guess I usually go all-out for birthdays. Don't know if pie is going to happen, but I was planning to make cookies and cupcakes. I think Whoopie Pies would be a big hit.
Sue says
I'm sure I've had one at some point in my life but don't really remember. Are they messy to eat? When I see photos of them I always think of those Hostess treats called Suzy Q's.
martha says
I grew up eating whoopie pies baked by my mom who was born and raised in Maine. You still see them everywhere there. But I never see them here in Phoenix. I think it's a regional thing.
Now that you've planted the seed, I'll need to be baking a batch soon. These look delicious.
Jersey Girl Cooks says
My son loves whoopie pies but I make them very rarely. He will be a happy boy when I make these. I like the cake to filling ratio here too.