No matter their origin, whoopie pies still a classic

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Whoopie pies may be a semiuniquely Maine dish. The Pennsylvania Amish and their neighbors make them, and for years summer visitors to Maine have been looking forward to their annual whoopie pie treat. There is considerable controversy about their origin, but this may be one of those things that migrated from a (Bangor?) bakery into the home kitchen in the early 1900s.

Anyway, the recipe has been around a long time. Some of you who shared recipes are using directions half a century or more old. Jeanine Gay in Belfast sent along Rollande’s Whoopie Pies, a recipe, she said, “copied from my mother’s sister about 60 years ago.” In Owl’s Head, Brenda McLain’s recipe is the one her mother followed when making them for Brenda’s father, and now Brenda bakes them for her 10-year-old grandson. Alice Rollins in Guilford uses a 50-year-old recipe, and Lois Farr’s came from her mom’s 1942 Rebekah’s Cook Book. On Mount Desert Island, Ruth Watson made whoopie pies for her children growing up in the 1950s and ’60s. Martha Alley of South Thomaston found her recipe in a 1978 Lincolnville Grange cookbook. Alice Knight in Rockland reported that she taught from 1962 until her retirement in 1990, and her whoopie pie recipe was a great favorite with her home economics students. And in Veazie, Carol Thompson’s recipe has served five generations!

Several recipes are well-traveled. Jennie Jones from Baileyville sent her recipe to her daughter in Mexico, where it worked perfectly. Lucille White took hers to England in 1964, where she lived for two years. When Lois Farr lived in California, she “always made them when my son went on camping trips.” Her son’s friends had never had them before, she reported, but “after the first time, his pals always said, ‘Be sure to have your mom make those chocolate things.'”

The classic whoopie pie is a chocolate-flavored cookie-cake with a fluffy vanilla filling. There are lots of variations now, but I asked for the basic chocolate one, and you all came through.

Comparing them, I observed that there is a fairly standard cookie that differed only a little from recipe to recipe: a little more shortening in one, a little less in another; the cocoa ranged from five tablespoons to a half-cup for every two cups of flour.

Three basic filling variations emerged. One uses marshmallow fluff with shortening and confectioners sugar beaten in. Another is the standard pastry cream made of cooked flour and milk beaten with sugar and shortening. Evelyn Greene in Bangor makes this sort for her whoopie pies and uses the same filling in red velvet cake! Then there is the one made with egg whites (always in recipes that use the yolks in the cookies), beaten with sugar and shortening. All are flavored with vanilla.

Let’s talk about shortening. Most recipes called for Crisco or Spry, white shortening in the can. Over the past couple of years I have been phasing hydrogenated vegetable oils out of my life, replacing them with butter, oil and lard (from our own pigs), preferring shortenings that humans have known about, and that the human body has been digesting, for centuries over relatively modern manufactured ones. Somehow it seems easier using Crisco in the cookie part than in the filling, but Crisco sure is the classic filling ingredient for whoopie pies. Despite my reservations, I included it below, though personally I would greatly prefer one made with butter. Whatever filling you use, follow Lucile White’s lead: “Guys really love them because I don’t skimp on the filling.”

Among other advice, some use a spray to grease the cookie sheets; Jeanine uses Silpat (a non-stick fiberglass and silicone sheet pan liner); Helen Braley of Plymouth bakes them on ungreased pans, as does Gloria Bodman in Machias. Alice Rollins cautions, “Remove them from the oven just before the cookies are completely baked so they aren’t over-done.” Her recipe used in her son’s grade-school teacher’s “Holiday Treats Cook Book,” doubles the usual one: “No sense making a smaller amount,” she wrote.

The funniest whoopie pie story came from Marion Fowler in Norcross. Over the past 40 years, Marion has bumped into three memorable kinds of whoopie pies. Each time, she thought each one was the best she ever had eaten. Each time she asked for the recipe, and each time the recipe was exactly the same as the one before. It was also identical to four of the other 13 recipes you sent in!

This was, of course, not a whoopie pie contest, and I suspect the best whoopie pie is the one you remember from your childhood. Ultimately I liked the more-chocolatey cookies and the filling made with beaten egg whites. Of course, that leaves you with some egg yolks. Hollandaise, anyone? Custard? The recipe below is easily doubled.

Whoopie Pies

Makes about 14 to 16 3-inch whoopie pies

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 F. Sift together dry ingredients. Cream together shortening and sugar, beat in the egg and vanilla, then add the dry ingredients and milk alternately. You will have a fairly stiff cake batter. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving room for them to spread somewhat. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before removing them to a rack.

Whoopie Pie Filling

2 egg whites

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the egg whites until they are fluffy, gradually adding one cup of confectioners sugar. Then spoonful by spoonful add the shortening and the rest of the sugar to the egg white mixture until it is smooth and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla. When the cookies are cool enough to handle, make pairs of similarly sized ones and spread the filling on one half and top with the other half. Wrap in plastic wrap or put into an airtight container.

Looking for …

Sharon Ray needs Waldorf Salad for 50 servings. Now, if we had one for 10 servings, we could multiply it. Anyone ever make this for church or lodge suppers?