For my husband’s birthday, I decided to go off the beaten path a little bit – rather than making cake, I baked whoopie pies!  I’ve been meaning to give them a try for a while now…and as my husband loves all things peanut butter and chocolate related, I figured this recipe would be a winner!  I’ve got to give Martha props here – I didn’t change much about the cookie recipe, except that I did not have shortening on hand and substituted all butter.  The chocolate cookie part of the pie was absolutely perfect - moist, cake-y and rich, yet held up well to the sandwich-forming process critical to the whoopie pie construction.  I did make several modifications to the filling – I simply love the marshmallow-y taste of a classic whoopie pie – so rather than use a straight peanut butter frosting as Martha did, I substituted some peanut butter into a recipe for the classic marshmallow frosting.  It came out fantastic – reminded us of the inside of a Reese’s peanut butter cup.  I highly recommend using parchment as directed with this recipe.  Warning – this is most definitely NOT a health food…but good for the soul!  (As an aside – if you prefer plain whoopie pies – just increase the butter to 1/2 cup and leave out the peanut butter.)

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies – Adapted from Martha Stewart, marshmallowfluff.com

Ingredients – for the Cookies:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch-process
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 375.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.  In a separate bowl (or a stand mixer if you have one) combine the butter and sugars.  Beat until smooth and fluffy – which for me was about 2-3 minutes.  Make sure to scrape down the bowl intermittently to ensure good mixing!  Then add the egg, mixing for an additional 2 minutes until well combined and light.  Next add about half of the dry ingredients, stirring to incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add the milk and vanilla, mixing to combine ingredients evenly.  Finally mix in the remaining half of the dry ingredients.  Drop the batter by rounded tablespoons onto a cookie sheet, covered in parchment, and bake in a preheated oven for 12 minutes or until the center springs back when lightly pressed.  Cool completely on a wire rack before proceeding to filling.

  Ingredients – for the Frosting

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup marshmallow creme (I highly recommend ‘Marshmallow Fluff’)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• Beat together butter, peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.  Spread frosting onto the flat side of a cookie, and press another cookie on top to form the completed pie.  Enjoy!

  Tags: Whoopie Pies

  This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Baked Goods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.