It's the season for making WHOOPIE...

…Whoopie Pies that is.

My friend, Barb, alerted me to an article the New York Times put out for these tasty morsels called Whoopie Pies. Of course now that the New York Times has put out an Amber Alert on these suckers I’m sure they’re going to pop up all over the place or die a quick, painless death. Either way, I thought I’d try my hand at them. This was Penny’s first recipe since the incident. She performed quite well.

I used the recipe that was linked with the Time’s article, with some minor adjustments. So here’s our take on the Gluten Free Whoopie Pie with Peanut Butter Buttercream.

For the cakes:
1 stick butter (I’d zap it for a little bit so it’s soft)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cups of Sorghum Flour
2/3 cups of Tapioca Flour
2/3 cups of Brown Rice Flour
1 ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
½ cup Cocoa powder
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until light and creamy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, gluten free flours, xanthan gum, and cocoa. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk, and combining well after each addition.

Line a baking sheet (or a couple) with parchment paper. Use a spoon (or ice cream scoop) and scoop out 18 mounds of batter. I made thick cakes, next time I will make them a little thinner, and therefore have more of them. Make an even number because it’s a sandwich pie.

Bake until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched. Mine took about 18 minutes in my little renal oven. But I’d keep an eye on them, they may take anywhere from 12-18 minutes. Bake until the cakes puff up a little and spring back when touched.

Remove from oven and cool completely before filling.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Filling
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup of Creamy Peanut Butter
1 ¼ cup of sifted powdered sugar

Beat peanut butter and butter together. Add powdered sugar in, a little at a time. It will be delicious!

Assemble:
Using a spoon or a spatula take a big wallop of peanut butter buttercream on the flat side of each cake and spread to the edges, you can make it as thick or as thin as you’d like and sandwich two sides together.

Whoopie!

How Pegleg got her name…A story of true survival

PP as she will be called for short, used to have two able beaters. She’s been with the family (i.e. Me) since Christmas of 2006. During her first 6-8 months in our household, she was pretty much the lone ranger. I didn’t have time to cook or bake and I had a general apathy towards appliances. Especially those of the plug-in, silver, varying speed variety. If I hadn’t quit my job in the Spring of 2007 from a bad case of quarter life crisis, who knows if Pegleg Penny would have had such an impact on my life. (A relative impact, of course.) In the time off between jobs, trying to discover my path in life, and watching soap operas on my couch, I decided to bake. And then I decided to bake some more. And then I decided to experiment with gluten free flours and then I really decided to bake a lot. The waves of baking come and go, but PP has always been there. Whether we decided to take on trifles for Thanksgiving AND Christmas (had to justify buying the trifle dish) or alter a boxed cake mix to make new and exciting cupcakes, she has been there, beating her little heart out.

But with every new and exciting culinary challenge I failed to realize that appliances have a life span and a limit. Penny reached her limit when attempting to make Saint Patrick’s Day Bailey’s Irish Cream and Coffee cupcakes. Maybe she just wasn’t used to all the alcohol, maybe the coffee gave her jitters. Whatever the problem was, however, her beaters started to clash against each other. I tried using the whisking beaters, but again, with the same results. I nearly had a panic attack. The idea of whisking cream for whipped cream frosting and mixing together all the ingredients until smooth was daunting. Not to mention, I lack upper body strength. Instead of throwing in the towel, I improvised…

If we only used one beater then she would be fine. Maybe not able to take on as many ingredients at once, but she’s be able to whip something way faster than my poor arm. So was the birth of Pegleg Penny…I know eventually I’ll have to replace her or that one day I should get my screwdriver out and try to fix her, however, I’m in no hurry. We’ll just figure it out as we go along and see what this whole world wide web thing turns into.