Chocolate whoopie pies

I have been meaning to make whoopie pies for years or that’s what it feels like anyway…I think I purchased this whoopee pie bookabout a year a go, its written by the the owner of the violet bakery in broadway market (I can’t believe I haven’t visited it considering I don’t live very far from it and that the lovely Spitafileds just down the road is a fairly regular jaunt. Anyhow following purchase of the book I then ordered a whoopee pie tin from Lakeland  when I was ordering other more necessary stuff ( it was cheap and I needed to get to the total that you have to get to to get  free delivery, well that’s my excuse at least and I’m sticking to it!).So finally a year later I got around to using it…turns out a sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray actually works better than the tin for making flat round discs …but hey you live and learn…..

There were loads that I wanted to try, now that my peanut butter addiction is out in the open , I can say obviously peanut butter whoopies with peanut butter cream in  the middle looked tempting as did the carrot cake whoopie with orange-mascarpone cream. However I have been wanting to make homemade marshmallow fluff for a while (the hummingbird book uses it for quite a lot of their fillings in their whoopee pies ), so I went with the chocolate whoopee pies with marshamallow fluff filling. (Also I always seem to have batches of three frozen egg whites in the freezer  left over  from the frequent bread and butter pudding making that goes on around these parts when winter hits). The first batch I made were too thick so I used less batter in the next round which worked better. It’s actually quite easy to use a tablespoon to spread a circle on the baking tray.

The discs of sponge were light and moist and melt in your mouth and the marshmallow filling was very soft  and gooey and sticky and sweet. You need quite a big dollop of it in the middle-I think I didn’t put enough in in mine. I think also next time I will try the marshammallow filing in the hummingbird book which mixes the fluff with other ingrediants  There is a tutorial on you tube that I just found as I was searching to see if the recipe is online. It isn’t so here it is below:

Recipe from The Whoopie pie book text copyright © Claire Patak

Chocolate whoopee pies

Makes 9 large or 24 mini

175g Plain flour

100g cocoa powder

1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

0.5 tsp baking powder

o.5 tsp salt

125g unsalted butter

200g sugar

1 large egg

225mlbuttermilk (or half yoghurt, half milk)

1tsp vanilla extract

Prehat oven to 180◦C.

Line a couple of trays with baking parchment

In a bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder,bicarb,baking powder.

In another bowl cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy

Add egg and mix well

Add buttermilk and vanilla  and then dry ingredients in two batches, mixing until just incorporated (don’t overmix)

Drop onto trays with a tablespoon about 5 cm apart. Bake for 8-10 mins for small pies or 10-12 for large (don’t overbake). Remove from oven and cool completely.

Fluffy marshmallow filling

3 egg whites

150g sugar

2 tbspn golden syrup

Pinch of salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Weigh all the ingredients into a heat proof bowl (I use the steel bowl of my kitchen aid) and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk for about 10-15 minutes until all sugar has dissolved and the mixture is frothy. Remove from the heat and whip the mixture at high speed until it is white and thick and holds its shape (this doesn’t take long at all-a couple of minutes at the most)

Sandwich the discs together with a generous tablespoon