Whoopie Pies
A classic chocolate whoopie pie - but this one has a little twist! The filling is made with cream cheese frosting instead of the traditional buttercream. They're as good as the whoopie pies we had in Maine!
Ingredients
- FOR THE WHOOPIE PIES
- 1 stick salted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup milk see recipe note
- 1 tbsp lemon juice see recipe note
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp, cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- FOR THE FROSTING
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 4 tbsp salted butter
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Make the pies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the tablespoon of lemon juice and the 1 cup of milk to a drinking glass, and stir to combine. Let sit while you mix up the other ingredients (about 5 minutes). If you have buttermilk on hand you can skip this step and just use that. Soften butter in the microwave for about 20-25 seconds. Don't let it get melty! In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter with a mixer until smooth. Add the brown sugar and beat until completely combined and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until combined. In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Alternate adding the milk and the dry ingredients to the bowl with the butter/sugar mixture. I do this in thirds - I add 1/3 of the dry mixture, and then mix on low speed. I add 1/3 of the milk, and then mix on low speed. Repeat this until everything is combined. The batter will be thinner than cookie dough but a little thicker than cake batter.
- Bake: Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop a cookie scoop or a heaping tablespoon full of batter onto the parchment paper, leaving about 3 inches in between each batter blob. Don't flatten them at all! You can fit about 8 batter blobs on a cookie sheet at a time. Bake one cookie sheet at a time - for 9 minutes. To check if they're done, gently poke one of the cookies with your finger - if it makes a dent, it could use another minute or two. If the cookie springs back, it's done. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack right away, and let cool completely before frosting.
- Make the frosting: While the whoopie pie cookies are baking, make the frosting. Soften the butter and cream cheese together in the microwave for about 25-30 seconds. Mix with an electric mixer until creamed and smooth. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar, and mix until combined, on low speed. Add the milk and vanilla, and mix. Add the remaining cup of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. We want a little bit of a thicker frosting here, but it should still be spreadable. If it's wayy too thick for some reason, add an additional tablespoon or two of milk and mix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate while the cookies bake and cool.
- Assemble: When the cookies are completely cooled, remove the frosting from the fridge. Spread frosting on the flat side of one of the cookies, and add the second piece on top to make a whoopie pie. Try to pair the cookies up based on similar size for a neat look. Enjoy right away!
- Store: Store whoopie pies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
NOTE: If you have buttermilk on hand, you can use 1 cup of that in place of the 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 cup regular milk. I NEVER have buttermilk on hand but I usually have regular milk and a lemon. Also, it's a little more practical to do it this way so you don't have a lot of leftover buttermilk to somehow use up. But either way works just fine!