BBQ Whoopies

Barbeques. A staple in Chicago once the weather gets nice. After at least 6 months of being cooped up inside because of freezing temperatures, everyone is dying to sit outside, have some good food, play some bags, and relax.

A couple weeks ago I had two barbeques to attend, booking my Saturday completely. I was pretty excited because they weren’t just ‘lets hang out and drink some beer’ barbeques, they were ‘Hey! I got my masters!’ and ‘Suddenly, it’s my birthday!’. Events like that, you can’t miss. However, I have been really busy lately and wanted to make something easy, that I was confidant I could make and make well (especially after the peanut butter pie disaster). I decided to try my hand at the Whoopie pies again, only this time, just follow the recipe straight up. They would be full of gluten! All you gluten free birds out there may be a tad disappointed, but the reality is, I’m an equal opportunity baker. Not to mention, it gives it a new spin.

I followed the cake/pie part from the recipe posted in the New York Times a couple months ago. Here’s what it called for:

1 stick of butter (room temperature) – I softened mine
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt (I used Kosher salt)
2 cups All purpose flour
½ cup cocoa
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and creamy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, flour, and cocoa.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 parts alternating with buttermilk. Make sure everything combines well before adding more.
Drop the batter on parchment lined baking sheet. I didn’t make the cake/pies as big as before, I made smaller ones, about 2” in diameter. Bake for 12 minutes.

They aren’t as dense as the gluten free pies. They spring back when touched and are slightly more delicate. I had two barbeques to attend on the day I made these so I doubled the recipe and it came out perfect.

One batch I made with a Peanut Butter Buttercream and the other batch I filled with a modified Vanilla Buttercream. (The Peanut Butter Buttercream you can find in my older post.)

The Vanilla Buttercream
½ cup Butter
1 ¾ cup Powdered Sugar
1 TBSP light cream (I substituted 4 TBSP heavy whipping cream)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together until stiff peaks form. I ran out of powdered sugar, which I would have added a little more of because the frosting wasn’t as thick as I would have liked it. I also would have doubled the recipe, because it just made enough and I used it pretty sparingly.

All in all the glutinous Whoopie Pies were successful and big hits at both barbeques. However, I kind of liked the denseness of the gluten free ones better. These felt a little soggy because they were so soft.

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!