Whoopie

There are a lot of food and baking blogs out there, all of whom do a much better job than me. But baking has become one of newest past times. I usually bake about once a week and "try" to modify the ingredients to make them as light/healthy as possible. The one exception is when I am making something for someone else, then it's all fat all the time.

This weekend I made Whoopie Pies with a little twist for my brother-in-law's birthday. The recipe came from the Pillsbury Children's Choice Cookbook, circa 1982. As an aside, I just noticed the subtitle, "nutritiously creative recipes children will love to eat". What exactly is "nutritiously creative"? Anyway, the original recipe called for a marshmallow creme filling but I wanted to try something a little different and used this Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting to fill them with. I think they turned out really well.

They come together quickly and easily and are great for taking somewhere as they transport easily. A few things I noticed however:
1. I do most of my baking on a Pampered Chef Stone and it usually works great. These, not so much. For some reason the batch baked on the stone didn't rise like they should have. They ended up looking like chocolate sugar cookies. I have a cheapie baking sheet that I used with a silicone baking pad and got much better results.
2. I decided to refrigerate them due to the eggs and butter in the frosting, but they really should be served at room temperature.

Here's the recipe if anyone wants to try them:

1 c. sugar
1/2 butter, softened
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
1 c. milk
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. cocoa
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Marshmallow filling
2 c. powdered sugar
1 c. marshmallow creme
1/4 c. butter, softened
3-4 t. milk
1 t. vanilla

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheet. In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, vanilla and egg; blend well. Stir in milk. Add remaining ingredients, mixing well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (I used a small melon baller) 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the edges appear set. Cool 1 minute, remove from cookie sheet (if you are using the silicone pad, let them cool completely on the sheet).

In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients; beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Place 2 cookies together sandwich style with about 1 T. (or more!) of filling. Makes about 30 sandwich cookies.

If you try these, let me know how they turn out for you.