Whoopie Pies (ATK)

• annokset: 6

Ainekset

Cakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup packed light brown sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1 large egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

Filling

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1¼ cups confectioners sugar

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

2½ cups Marshmallow Fluff

Ohjeet

1. For the cakes: Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

2. With electric mixer on medium speed, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in egg until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and beat in one-third of flour mixture, then half of buttermilk. Repeat with half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining buttermilk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Using rubber spatula, give batter final stir.

3. Using ⅓-cup measure, scoop 6 mounds of batter onto each baking sheet, spacing mounds about 3 inches apart. Bake until cakes spring back when pressed, 15 to 18 minutes, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking. Cool completely on baking sheets, at least 1 hour.

4. For the filling: With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Beat in Fluff until incorporated, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate filling until slightly firm, about 30 minutes. Bowl can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

5. Dollop ⅓ cup filling on center of flat side of 6 cakes. Top with flat side of remaining 6 cakes and gently press until filling spreads to edge of cake. Serve. (Whoopie pies can be refrigerated in air- tight container for up to 3 days.)

Muistiinpanot

Don't be tempted to bake all the cakes on one baking sheet; the batter needs room to spread in the oven.

JUNE/ JULY 2006• COOK'S COUNTRY

've always had a not-so-secret addiction to convenience snack cakes. From Devil Dogs to Oatmeal Cream Pies, if it's packaged in cellophane, i'll eat it. Having been practically raised on the snack combo of a MoonPie and an ice-cold RC Cola, it wasn't a stretch for me to take a shine to whoopie pies on a recent road trip to Maine. Made of two chocolate cookie-like cakes stuffed to the gills with a fluffy marshmallow filling, the whoopie pie is my idea of a good sandwich. It took just one bite for me to wonder: Where did it come from? Why the funny name? And, most important, how could I make this treat at home? It turns out that Maine and Pennsylvania—the Pennsylvania Dutch of Lancaster County, to be specific-both claim whoopie pies as their own. After weeks of reading through old newspapers and talking to librarians and bakery owners, here's what I learned. Maine's earliest claim dates back

to 1925, when Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston first sold whoopie pies to the public. As I continued my research, I ran across an advertisement for a whoopie pie wrapper contest in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. "Collect the most wrappers and a brand new 1950 Plymouth Sedan could be yours!" In small letters under the prize I saw the -Boston." words "Berwick Cake Co.- Some research showed that the Berwick

Cake Company began manufacturing Whoopie! Pies (the exclamation point was part of the name) in 1927. These sources claim that whoopie pies were named after the musical Whoopie (from which came the well-known song "Makin' Whoopie"); Whoopie had its debut in Boston 1927. In addition, Marshmallow Fluff, a key ingredient in many whoopie pie recipes, was invented in nearby Lynn seven years earlier. What about Pennsylvania's claim on Whoopie pies? I found an article in a copy of the Gettysburg Times from 1982 that spoke of a chocolate cake sandwich with a fluffy cream center. These sandwiches were called gobs and were sold by the Dutch Maid Bakery of Geistown, Pa. While the name was different, the description (and a huge picture) showed that these were no doubt whoopie pies by another name. In 1980, Dutch Maid Bakery purchased the rights to the gob from the Harris and Boyer Baking Company, which had started manufacturing gobs in 1927.

While I wasn't able to resolve the conflicting claims about the origins of the whoopie pie (although I'm pretty confident that they date back to the 1920s), I figured I could bake some up myself. Whoopie pie recipes haven't changed much over the years. Original recipes used a devil's food cake base, with "soda" and "soured milk" to lift the cakes. In today's vernacular, baking soda and buttermilk work well in their place. While the original cakes contained lard, many recipes have switched to shortening or vegetable oil, both of which extend the cakes' shelf life. Although it's considered heresy in the whoopie world, I used butter instead of shortening. Moist and tender, these cakes were snatched up as fast as I could bake them, so I had no concern about shelf life. Originally, the filling was a whipped frosting made of sugar and lard, but recipes soon switched to marshmallow crème, which was easily purchased under the name of Marshmallow Fluff. Instead of mixing the marshmallow with lard or vegetable shortening, I turned once more to butter. I slathered this fluffy fill- ing between two chocolate cookie-cakes and my whoopie pies were done. And as soon as I put them on a plate, they were history, too. -Bridget Lancaster