Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peanut Butter Filling - Yum!

I had never heard of a whoopie pie until I moved to Baltimore and the girl I lived with was obsessed with them. Apparently they are an east coast thing...they originated in Maine (although Pennsylvania tries to steal the glory for being the whoopie pie creator), and they are even Maine's state treat! My roommate in Baltimore was from Massachusetts, so it would make sense that she grew up eating them, but being from Ohio, I had never heard or one, nor tried one.

Whoopies pies come in all different flavor combinations, although the recipe I stumbled upon was for chocolate "pie" with peanut butter filling. Since I am currently loving Maranatha brand peanut butter (and we recently stocked up on it at the Los Alamos Co-op since it was on sale), I figured the chocolate/peanut butter combo would be perfect.

I decided to make a half batch, since Scott made a recent comment about all the 'junk' we have in the house, i.e. all of my baking creations :) The half batch still made about 15 whoopie pies, which was more than enough!

The dough was a basic cupcake dough, calling for all purpose flour and some whole wheat flour, baking soda and baking powder, cocoa powder, buttermilk, eggs and butter. I've really liked using buttermilk lately in recipes. Fat and calorie content is fairly low (100 calories and ~2.5 grams of fat per 1 cup serving), and it really makes cupcakes and breads moist but still fluffy. In fact, I used buttermilk in a recent batch of bread that I made to use some leftover quinoa, and it turned out wonderful, sort of like a light, airy buttermilk bread with little bites of nutty quinoa. Another good vessel for peanut butter!

The whoopie pie dough was fairly thick, about the halfway mark between a cake batter and a cookie batter. The recipe instructed the baker to cook the pies on parchment paper, so I scooped out the batter about a tablespoon at a time onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and stuck them in the preheated oven.

Pre-cooking: the dough is thick enough that it stays in place after scooping onto the cookie sheet

The recipe said to bake the pies for only 8 minutes, rotating the sheet about halfway through and removing the pies from the oven when they were soft to the touch, but not wet. Each tray took exactly 8 minutes, although I probably could have gotten by with 7 to 7.5 minutes.

Perfect little pies!

The pies all came out a uniform size and shape, which is exactly what I needed! They smelled great and looked delicious.

In order to make the filling, I put the butter and peanut butter in a bowl and used the Kitchen-Aid mixer to mix on high for about 2 minutes until fluffy. Then I slowly added powdered sugar and a little bit of whipping cream and continued beating until I got the desired consistency for a light, fluffy filling, similar in texture to a buttercream icing.

Once the pies had completely cooled, I placed about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter filling on one pie, and then topped with another pie. Half a batch still made about 15 pies total.

A few are missing already: George and Courtney got to take some home, and I sent some home with Liz (lucky her!) when she stopped by with Bailey

Of course I had to taste-test one (or two!), and they were absolutely delicious. The chocolate pie was light and airy, but still moist, and the peanut butter filling was a wonderful compliment to the chocolate pie. I love the cake/cookie combo of the whoopie pie, it's like you're getting the best of both worlds! I think I would cook the pies for about a minute less next time, as the bottom of each pie started getting a little hard, so there was a slight crunch when biting through the pie, and they really should be soft and airy all the way through. I will definitely be making these again but perhaps in some different taste combinations. Scott suggested a coffee filling with the chocolate pie, which would probably be equally delicious.

Pretty sure that whoopie pie and ice cream isn't quite traditional, but it still tasted delicious! 

Graham Crackers from Scratch and Banana 'Cream' Pie

Last weekend was a busy social weekend for us with get-togethers both Friday and Saturday nights, so I figured I'd make two pies on Friday and call it good. Otherwise, I spend all weekend in the kitchen (which usually isn't a bad thing, except that I'm starting to ramp up my Ironman training now, so time is a little more limited).

We had some bananas that were well beyond ripe, so I decided I'd try a banana cream pie. Scott has had some trouble recently with custard pies not quite setting up, so I was a little worried, but figured I would improvise as I went along and hope for the best!

I've had a recipe for graham crackers that I've been wanting to try out, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity...I could make the graham crackers, and then use them to make a yummy homemade graham cracker crust for the banana cream pies.

I got the recipe from a King Arthur whole grain cookbook, so the recipe called for some all-purpose flour but was mostly whole wheat flour and some barley flour (the trick for getting them crunchy). Barley flour was a little tricky to find, but I found some at New Frontiers (i.e. Hippy Horizons!) in Flagstaff during my last trip there and stocked up, so I was all set!

I mixed the dough up on a Thursday night, since it had to sit in the fridge for at least an hour (and up to overnight) before using. It was a very thick, crumbly dough and somewhat hard to manipulate. I ended up adding a little extra rice milk to the recipe, since high altitude usually dries things out.

I divided the dough into two chunks and wrapped it in plastic wrap, then stuck it in the fridge overnight. After kettlebells the next morning, I was ready to roll out some dough (although my shoulders were a bit sore while doing it...).

The directions said to roll the dough out very thin, and then cut the dough into squares and poke with a fork. Well, that's a whole lot of work when you're just going to mash the crackers up into little tiny pieces! So, I rolled them out as thin as I could them, then just put the whole chunk of dough on a cookie sheet, poked it some with a fork, and put it in the oven.

Definitely easier and much less time consuming. They had to bake for about 12 minutes, I ended up leaving them in a little longer because they weren't quite done (also probably an altitude factor - I think next time I'll up the oven temperature by about 25 degrees to see if that helps. They stay pretty flat for baking, but came out looking pretty good.

I think that next time, if I am making them into "real" graham crackers (instead of just using them for graham cracker crusts), I'll actually cut them into smaller squares, maybe 2 graham crackers each, and then bake them that way. The outer edges of the large squares got nice and crispy, but the insides were still a little chewy, so maybe by cutting them up into smaller squares it would make all of them crunchy.

After they were sufficiently cooled, I dumped all the crumbs into a Ziploc bag and smashed them down to nothing! Mixed in some butter and cinnamon, and I was ready for the graham cracker crust.

I smashed the crumbs into two pie dishes, and then baked the crusts for about 8 minutes at 325 degrees. Since the pies that I would be using the crusts for were non-bake, I wanted to make sure that the crust set and wouldn't crumble during cutting.

So, the crusts were done, now on to the filling! The pie was going to be more of a pudding pie with whipped cream on top, instead of the standard banana cream, which I'm not a huge fan of. The recipe that I found called for the basics: sweetened condensed milk, whipped cream, bananas, some cream cheese, and a package of vanilla pudding mix. Well, everything that had gone into the crust and pie so far was organic, and trying to find organic vanilla pudding mix is nearly impossible, so I put in a container of silken tofu and some cornstarch to try to replicate the pudding mix. I whipped everything together, dumped it in the pie crust (once it had cooled), and put it in the fridge to set.

Before Friday night's party, I took the pie out of the fridge to make sure it had set, and it was still a bit jiggly. I put it in the freezer to harden a little bit more while I whipped up some cream to top the pie with. I also cut some strawberries so I could make it look pretty!

When we were ready for dessert, I took the pie out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter a bit, but I probably should have left it in the freezer. I think my Silken Tofu/cornstarch substitution wasn't quite right, as the pie was still a little goopy and the filling spilled out a bit. But the graham cracker crust got stellar reviews!

I did the same thing with the second pie for Saturday night's festivities, and while the second pie set up a little better (probably due to the longer time in the refrigerator), it still wasn't quite solid.

I think that overall, the crust was probably the best part of the pie. The graham cracker flavors were great, with a little bit of cinnamon and cloves in the original recipe, and then some more cinnamon added while making the crust. I did make it a bit thick, which made it hard to cut (especially after being in the freezer), so I think next time I'll use a little less graham cracker crumbs (and maybe slightly more butter so the crumbs stick together better). The flavor of the filling was really good, and a lot of people remarked on how 'banana-y' it was, but I'm a little disappointed that the filling was so gooey. I think replacing the pudding with Silken Tofu can work, as long as I add a little more corn starch and give the pie a good 24+ hours to chill. Overall, a recipe that I'll try again with modifications. In the meantime, I'll have to try Scott's Chocolate Mousse Pie in the graham cracker crust, I doubt it'll even last 24 hours in the house...

Homemade Baking Mix

When I started baking, I realized just how much stuff I could make at home that I usually would buy in the store. A recent discovery was homemade Bisquick! When I was growing up, my mom would commonly make a dish called Cheeseburger Pie. Basically ground beef mixed with some Bisquick, an egg and/or milk, dumped into a pie dish and baked with cheese on top (very midwestern!). Scott and I had some leftover ground beef, so I figured I would make my own "grown-up" version of Cheeseburger Pie. But, that would require Bisquick mix, which I refuse to buy at the store for two reasons:

1. No organic option (although maybe the co-op would have that now)
2. I knew it couldn't be that hard to make myself.

After a quick search, I found one of my new favorite websites, http://kitchensimplicity.com/

The website's writer seems very similar to me, in that she really enjoys making things from scratch, and keeping things both interesting and healthy. I quickly whipped up a batch of her Homemade Baking Mix, which took me about 2 minutes. Recipe can be found here: http://kitchensimplicity.com/homemade-bisquick-mix/

The cheeseburger pie (or "meat pie", as Scott and I ended up calling it), turned out amazing, but I've since used the Homemade Baking Mix for many other things since then, including some amazing pancakes and cheddar, basil and dill biscuits. The nice thing is that I can quickly whip up 4 or 6 biscuits in record time for dinner, and pancakes are a total breeze. Plus, the pancakes are amazing, second only to my dad's pancakes.

Blueberry and raspberry pancakes with flax meal

Also, I have started using ground flax meal mixed with water as an egg substitute in these pancakes, and rice or coconut milk instead of regular milk, and they still turn out amazing. A quick and delicious vegan breakfast!

Gluten Free Baking Part 2: Brownie Bites and Chocolate Chip Cookies

After my gluten-free baking doughnut fail, I figured I'd try to redeem myself before moving on. I ended up making some really delicious chocolate chip cookies and some pretty decent brownie bites.

The consistency of the chocolate chip cookie was similar to the gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies I had already attempted...thick, but kind of oily. I resisted the urge to add extra flour though, until the first batch came out of the oven and I could see what they turned out like. After the first batch came out, I decided to leave the recipe alone, since the cookies looked delicious!

Yum! Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!

I don't have a good stand-by chocolate chip cookie recipe yet, but these might fit the bill. They were crunchy on the outside, and still chewy on the inside, and were delicious both right out of the oven and a little later once they had cooled. Scott gave them two thumbs up, and he is definitely the cookie connoisseur in our house (I'm more of a cake fan).

In Part 1 of my gluten-free baking blog posts, I mentioned my failed attempt at making vegan vanilla icing. It never quite set up to the thickness of regular icing, despite multiple days in the fridge. I'm not one to waste anything that can be used up (even if it's a slightly unconventional way of using whatever the item is), so I decided to make ice cream cookie sandwiches using the icing as a sub for ice cream. Because the chocolate chip cookies hardened into perfect little discs, they worked great! It took a few rounds of icing then freezing, but overall they turned out delicious.

I do think though that the lucky taste-testers of the cookie sandwiches and just the cookies preferred the cookies on their own. The icing had a pretty strong coconut flavor that distracted from the deliciousness of the cookies.

The second gluten-free dessert that became a vessel for the vanilla icing were agave-sweetened brownie bites. These were a breeze to mix up, and the recipe made enough for exactly 24 mini brownies (baked in a mini-muffin tin). The batter was a very similar consistency to other brownies that I've made, and they baked quickly with no mess (or overflow!). Once they cooled, and before removing them from the pan, I made a little thumbprint in the middle of each brownie and poured in some vanilla icing. I figured the coconut flavor of the icing would go nicely with the chocolate in the brownies (which it did!).

Gluten-free brownie bites with vanilla icing

I think they turned out a bit dry, but that is probably due mostly to a little bit of overcooking. When I tested the brownies for doneness after the specified cooking time, the knife still came very gooey, so I let them cook a little longer. I should have taken them out once the cooking time was up, because I'm sure they continued to cook in their little tins and probably would have been the perfect doneness. My sister has since tried making these, and I recommended that she take the brownies out after the elapsed cooking time, whether they looked one or not, and she said they turned out perfect! So I'm sure it was just my mistake. Now I know for next time, as I will definitely be making these little things again!

First Gluten-Free baking FAIL!

One of the recipes in the gluten-free cookbook that I picked up is for doughnuts. I'm usually not a huge fan of doughnuts, but they were baked, not fried, so I was intrigued. Since I was going to be doing some other baking the same morning, I pulled out almost all the ingredients I would need for the day's baking adventures and set to work.

Look at that great picture of a doughnut! Unfortunately mine didn't turn out quite so well...

After mixing all the ingredients together, I did a quick grease job on the doughnut pan and started pouring in some batter. I was able to find the doughnut pan at a kitchen outlet store down in Santa Fe for about $6.

I cooked them for the specified amount of time, and they looked pretty good when I pulled them out of the oven. They didn't fluff up quite as much as I was expecting, but they seemed pretty good.

Once I started turned them out of the pan though, they started falling apart! I was able to get one or two full doughnuts out of the first pan.

At least the one that came out whole looks like a real doughnut! I added 2 or 3 more 'real' doughnuts to my pile from the second batch, and then I added some cinnamon and sugar.

Overall, I wouldn't call the doughnuts anything more than mediocre. I'm not sure if I need to up the cooking temperature some, or just cook them longer, or maybe reduce the amount of oil a little bit. They just seemed a little dense for a doughnut. I'm a much bigger fan of the fluffy doughnuts! But, my mom is a huge doughnut fan, so I might have to mess around with the recipe some more to see if I can perfect it. Maybe there will be a revised gluten-free doughnut blog post in the future... :)

Gluten-Free Baking, Part 1: Carrot Cupcakes, Vanilla Icing, and Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

An old co-worker and her husband opened up their home to use during our week-long fake vacation, i.e. the week that Los Alamos was evacuated due to the Los Conchas fire. Thankfully we had a safe place to go with our cats, and everyone survived the ordeal and came out healthy and happy (which for the cats means back to their crazy selves). 

The woman we were staying with had just received a new cookbook as a gift and all the items in the cookbook were gluten-free. I admittedly have absolutely no experience with gluten-free baking, but in anticipation of future bakery customers that need to eat gluten-free, I figured it was about time I learned a thing or two. A trip to Border's and I was in possession of the two cookbooks that have been produced by the owner of Babycakes Bakery in NYC, a gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery that has received rave reviews. I also made a few trips to the Santa Fe co-op to pick up some ingredients, and I was ready to start baking! 

**If you'd like recipes for any of the items you read about here, please email me or post a comment and I'll reply! Most of the recipes in this post and the next, more recent post, are pretty rigid followings of the Babycakes cookbook recipes. 

My first two attempts were carrot cupcakes and vanilla icing. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of either (I forgot my fancy new iPhone could take pictures!), but that's okay...I wouldn't call either of the products pretty! The carrot cupcakes turned out okay, but Scott and I both agreed that there was a bit too much baking soda...there was an odd aftertaste, most likely due to the baking soda. When cooking at high altitude, I usually decrease the amount of baking soda, but I was hesitant to mess with proportions too much during my first gluten-free baking attempt. I would definitely decrease the amount of baking soda next time though. Overall, the cupcakes were still very moist and flavorful, and I would definitely make them again. 

The vanilla icing, on the other hand, needs some more work! The use of coconut oil is very common in these cookbooks, and I had mistakenly bought unrefined coconut oil, which meant that the coconut flavor was still pretty strong. Tasty, but maybe a little overpowering for vanilla icing. Also, I had skipped over the part of the instructions where it says that the icing is best if made the night before. Whoops! I was making it about an hour before I was hoping to use it. Regardless, for some reason it never thickened...perhaps I added too much rice milk? It shouldn't really have mattered though; coconut oil is a solid below about 70 degrees, so it should have hardened back up once I put it in the fridge. Hopefully it'll turn out better on my second attempt! The flavor was still very good though (if a bit coconut-y), and I did end up using it to make Frozen Icing Chocolate Chip cookie sandwiches, which worked just fine! 

The third thing I made during "Part 1" of Gluten-Free Baking Adventures was double chocolate chip cookies. Again, I mistakenly used unrefined coconut oil, so the cookies were a bit more coconut-y than normal double chocolate chip cookies, but overall the flavor as really good. Texture seemed a little off though. The first batch of cookies seemed extremely oily, so I added some more flour (almost unheard of when baking at altitude! Usually it's more liquid), which helped some. They still seemed a bit crumbly and weren't quite what I like in a cookie. Scott pointed out that they would make excellent ice cream cookie sandwiches though, which of course led to the 'Icing Cookie Sandwiches'!

Sorry, no pictures...they'll all be in the next post!

A little absent lately....

Sorry for the delay in entries! With a wildfire looming in close vicinity of Los Alamos, the whole town was evacuated, and I haven't had much time for blogging! I have, however, had lots of time for baking, during our 1 week "vacation" of sorts. So, stay tuned next week for some new blog posts about my forays into gluten-free and vegan baking...