Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pies

By

Best-selling author Jennifer Weiner loves to make this easy treat with her daughters

My family travels to Cape Cod every summer. We go clamming—actually paddling out to sandbars, looking for air bubbles, and then digging up the clams. My two daughters become like little cave-girls. They gather enough to fill a bucket, and we cook them for dinner. Or they’ll pick beach plums, and we’ll make beach-plum jelly. I think it gives them a healthy sense of where food comes from when they know that someone had to make an effort to get the ingredients that ­become dinner or dessert.

Among our favorite treats on Cape Cod are whoopie pies, which thankfully we can make year-round.

My big girl, Lucy, is 8. She helps put stuff in the mixer; Phoebe, who is 3, gets a little-kid’s knife to help spread the filling. The experience turns into something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

View complete recipe

  • 24

Ingredients

  • Pies:
  • 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 4 tbsp vegetable shortening
  • 1 cup (packed) dark-brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • Marshmallow filling:
  • 1 1/2 cups Marshmallow Fluff
  • 1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preparation

Step 1

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 375 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt on a sheet of waxed paper. In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, shortening, and brown sugar on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium; beat for 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat 2 more minutes.

Add half of flour mixture and half of milk to batter; beat briefly on low. Beat in remaining flour mixture and milk.

Using a spoon, drop batter 1 tbsp at a time onto one of the baking sheets, spacing at least 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes, or until pies spring back when pressed gently. Remove from oven; let pies cool on sheet for 5 minutes; transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

To make filling: Beat Marshmallow Fluff and shortening for 3 minutes on medium. Reduce speed to low, and add sugar and vanilla. Beat until incorporated. Increase speed to medium; beat until fluffy.

Sandwich filling between the flat sides of two pies; repeat.

Nutrition Information:
Per serving
250 calories
28 g carbohydrates
2 g protein
16 g fat
15 mg cholesterol
160 mg sodium
1 g fiber

View complete recipe