Passion Kneaded: Whoopie Pies with Peanut Filling

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Whoopie Pies with Peanut Filling - Foodie Extravaganza

Do whoopie pies count as cookies? I found this recipe in Taste of Home's Ultimate Cookie Collection. Cookie collection. If they do indeed count as cookies, I can add them to the much-too-short list of cookies that I can successfully bake - Alton Brown's chewy chocolate chip cookies, these chocolate lava cookies, and biscotti/mandelbrot. However, if you consider them to be little cake sandwiches, then it's back to the drawing board for me.

Waiting for filling

March is National Peanut Month and peanuts are the ingredient of choice for this month's Foodie Extravaganza. Chocolate and peanut butter is a classic combination. However, it's not one that I truly love. In fact, while I love peanuts, I am pretty nonchalant about peanut butter. I thought I'd explore chocolate plus peanuts where peanuts were also adding texture to the soft cakes. Great decision. One not so good decision was when I used spicy peanuts. I love spicy food. And I've been trying to figure out how to approach the cayenne + chocolate combination. This, however, was not it. I simply chose the wrong brand of spicy peanuts. They were much too savoury (from the addition of dried tomatoes, etc.) for this application. I will have to make my own spicy peanuts to try again. Or I could just stop hesitating and add cayenne to my chocolate batters. One day.

Whoopie Pies with Peanut Filling

Recipe by: Kelster Adapted from: Taste of Home and Cook's Country

Yield: ~15 pies (30 mini cakes plus filling)

Filling Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour
1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup peanuts (chopped or crushed)

Cake Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup buttermilk

Directions

Filling.
Whisk together sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt in a small saucepan. Add milk to the saucepan and whisk until smooth. Place pan on medium-high heat. Stir continuously until the mixture boils and becomes very thick. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. You can refrigerate it to speed up the cooling.

When boiled milk mixture is cooled, place in a mixing bowl, add vanilla and whisk together for 30 seconds or until combined. Beat in the butter one tablespoon at a time until mixed in. Then beat the mixture on medium-high speed until it becomes light and fluffy. This could take about 7 minutes.

Set aside to set at room temperature. It will thicken a bit more as it sits.

Cakes
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two half sheet pans or cover with parchment paper.
Thoroughly mix together cocoa powder and hot water. Set aside to cool.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beating until fully combined. Mix in the cocoa mixture. Add the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Then alternate adding the flour with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
Drop tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Make sure that they are at least 2 inches apart as they will spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cakes are firm to the touch, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking.
Cool completely.
You can fill cakes in different ways. Spread some filling on one cake, add some of the peanuts. Top with another cake spread with some filling. Or you could spread filling on a cake, sandwich with another cake, then roll the sandwich in crushed peanuts.

Notes
Filling needs time to cool and set. It should be made before the cakes.
Some of your cakes might be a bit smaller than others. Be sure to pair matching cakes together before filling.
Aesthetically, I would have preferred bigger peanut pieces my but my Rocket made quick work of the peanuts.

Welcome to the March Foodie Extravaganza!
Where we all share delicious recipes with the same main ingredient.

This month the ingredient is Peanuts! We have a great variety of yummy recipes from main dishes to desserts to share with you. If you would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to the Facebook page to join. We would love to have you!