- Use a large ziplock bag to pipe your batter onto parchment paper and your whoopie pies will be almost perfectly symmetrical instead of trying to shape your pies after you have scooped them onto the paper with a spoon.
I started off my day with "Whoopies!" and ended my day with "Owwies!" Yes, I am being a little bit cheesey but everyone needs a little cheese in their life. I broke my toe Friday afternoon in my excited rush to pack clothes to travel home for a few weeks. My poor poor little itty bitty toe has been the bane of my existence for the last 4 weeks now and is only now showing signs of letting up. It is amazing how such a little thing can have incredible impact on your life. I guess little insignificant things are often times the building blocks to bigger and better things though.
Take my ultra mini Whoopie Pies for example. Barely the size of a quarter, these Whoopie Pies by themselves, unfilled, are nothing special, but put them together with a White Chocolate Cream Filling and Raspberry Preserves and bam!, they pack a powerful punch of taste and sweetness!
I adapted this recipe from a recipe from the book Whoopie Pies posted on www.Bakerella.com. I made only one change to the recipe, reducing the Baking Soda from 1 1/2 teaspoons to 3/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda.
Note: I am currently reading the book Bakewise by Shirley Corriher who uses a mixture of her culinary school skills mixed with science to break down the art of baking to make it perfect. She states if you use too much baking soda, you may over-leaven your cake causing it to actually fall instead of rise. Not only that, you may get that fairly unpleasant soapy taste baking soda by itself seems to leave in its wake. Shirley Corriher recommends using 1/4 teaspoon baking soda to 1 cup of flour. I estimated the flour and cocoa powder together would be roughly over 2 cups of flour and compromised with the recipe's stated 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda and made it 3/4 teaspoon, 1/4 per "cup of flour" and 1/4 just as extra.
Classic Chocolate Whoopie
from Whoopie Pies
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda **I used 3/4 tsp baking soda**
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
- In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
- Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
- Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently. **I poured my batter into a ziplock bag with a small hole at the bottom and squeezed out roughly a little smaller than a quarter of mixture as I wanted them ultra mini and I knew they would spread a little. Using a ziplock bag with batter in it helped tremendously in making my whoopie pies perfectly shaped. I squeezed the ziplock bag over one spot and continued squeezing until the circle size I wanted was achieved. With a teaspoon you sometimes may have slightly more or less mixture in each one and having to scoop and drop over and over becomes tiresome.
- Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.
For my ultra-mini pies, I had 140 cakes or 70 whoopie pies. I also had enough mixture for probably 30 more assembled whoopie pies but time was short and it was time to get crackin' at the assembly!
White Chocolate and Mascarpone Filling:
In a heavy small saucepan, combine 3 ounces chopped white baking chocolate (with cocoa butter) and 1/4 cup whipping cream. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate nearly melts. Remove from heat; stir until smooth. Cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese and 1/4 cup softened butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until smooth. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture. Chill about 30 minutes or until firm enough to pipe.
To Assemble the Whoopie Pies:
Spread the flat side of half of the cookies with about 1/4 teaspoon raspberry preserves. In a large pastry bag fitted with a small star tip, pipe White Chocolate and Mascarpone Filling over the raspberry preserve layer. Top with the remaining cookies, flat sides down. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.
The Raspberry and White Chocolate Mascarpone Filling was a filling previously used here.. http://www.sweetsandothereats.com/2010/08/mini-raspberry-and-white-chocolate.html
