Chocolate Whoopie Pie with Strawberry filling

Chocolate, strawberries, and whoopie -what more can one ask for this Valentine's Day? I even made the whoopie pies in a heart shape. I piped the batter onto the cookie sheet and filled the inside with more batter. The filling with the strawberries were a great addition.

Chocolate Whoopie Pie with strawberry filling
Chocolate Whoopie Pie:
8 Tbsp butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa powder
3 cups flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Mix until fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
5. Add the buttermilk and the baking soda. Mix until incorporated.
6. In a medium bowl, combine the baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and flour. Mix until incorporated.
7. Slowly, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
8. Scoop the batter with a ice cream scooper onto the parchment paper.
9. Space the batter mounds about 3 inches apart. (Like cookie dough).
10. Bake the batter for 5 minutes. Rotate the pan and cook for another 5 minutes.
11. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to rest on the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe by Jen of Sweet Morris. 

Strawberry filling:
8 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz. marshmallow fluff
1 lb. powdered sugar, whisked/sifted
1 cup strawberries, chopped fine
2 Tbsp milk

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter for a minute.
2. Add the salt, vanilla, marshmallow fluff, powdered sugar, and strawberries.
3. Stir until well combined. 
4. Add a little milk at a time until the desired consistency. 
5. (Add a little more powdered sugar if needed depending on the sweetness of the strawberries.)
6. Add a scoop of the filling in between two whoopie cakes. 
7. Gently press to sandwich the cakes to form a whoopie pie.

Recipe by Jen of Sweet Morris.

One year ago............................I made Pirozhki Meat Pies.
Two years ago..........................I made Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.
Three years ago.......................I made Nutella Molten Cake.

Did you already know...................
-The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
-The green top of the strawberry is called a calyx. 
-Madam Tallien (French Revolution aristocrat) was rumored to bath in strawberry juice.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I will occasionally ask my youngest daughter to go downstairs and get her sibling. Instead, she will holler for them while she is next to me. Does anyone in your house do this? I want to make sure it isn't just mine. 

  I think she just likes to holler. One day, we were all downstairs and my youngest daughter started to holler for her dad. He would holler back, "yea." She wouldn't answer but she kept hollering for him. Since my husband was busy, he just kept hollering back up to her. After a few minutes of this exchange, the next time my daughter hollered for "Dad", my husband responded "There is no one here with that name." It was suddenly quiet since she didn't know how to respond back but my youngest son did. My son turns to his dad and said, "Hey, whoever you are, she wants you." Then he smiles at my husband and says, "Did you like that better?"

  Yum! Whoopie Pies! They remind me of a cupcake with the filling in the middle instead of on top.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Whoopie Pie Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup of apple sauce
3 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whoopie Pie Filling:
4 oz of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powder sugar
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
4. In another bowl, cream the brown sugar with the vegetable oil and applesauce.
5. Add the pumpkin to the sugar mixture and beat.
6. Add the eggs one at a time then the vanilla. Mix well.
7. Slowly, add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture.
8. Mix until incorporated.
9. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter onto the baking sheet. Try to make the sizes.
10. Cook for about 15 minutes.**Prepare the filling while waiting**
11. Let cool on cookie rack for five minutes then transfer to a wire rack.
12. Prepare the next batch of cakes and place in the oven

**Whoopie Pie Filling:
Let cool completely about 30 minutes before frosting.

For the filling, combine the cream cheese, pumpkin, and the butter.
Add the powder sugar to the filling mixture.
Mix in the spices into the filling mixture until well incorporated. Refrigerate.

Whoopie Pie Cake recipe adapted from Bake at 350. Whoopie Pie Filling recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.

See the eyeball?

I highly recommend you to make these whoopie pies before someone hollers your name! My oldest daughter gave her best friend one and after each bite she would say, "I love your Mom." My husband doesn't like pumpkin (I guess he knows it is a vegetable) and he liked them.

The oldest daughter!

Did you already know.............
-The Maine State treat is the Maine Whoopie Pie.
-The Maine State dessert if the Blueberry Pie.
-The Whoopie Pie festival is held in Pennsylvania. 
-The Whoopie Pie has been argued to originated in Pennsylvania, Maine, or Massachusetts.