whoopie pies

Have you ever had an authentic whoopie pie? Me neither. Therefore, I can't confirm if these are the real deal or not. After looking at a lot of very different recipes, I decided that this was the simplest one out there as it calls for ingredients you're most likely to have sitting around in your pantry. There's something extremely annoying about having to go out and make a special purchase of marshmallow fluff just to make one batch of cookies you know nothing about.

When I found the recipe last year, I only decided to try it because it was so straight forward. Which is saying a lot since I'll usually avoid making unique things until I've tasted a real one (hello, macaron). I will admit that there is one strange thing about the recipe and that's the creme filling. But it does work. Eventually and rather magically.

They also taste so much better the second day (or at least 8 hours later, as I discovered yesterday). When I made my first batch, I was so sad when I had one the second day and found them to be ah-mazingly better than they were the first day. I was actually mad we had eaten what we did that first day. What a taste-waste. So. I'm here to tell you to hold back. Put them somewhere you can't see them and eat them on day 2. It's important. They go from meh pretty good, to holy shit I just ate something divine and I made it with frickin' crisco.

These all went to Idle Husband's office for Halloween today and that's why I tinted some of the filling orange and yellow. I wish the orange had turned out a little more, uh, orangey but orange is really hard to achieve. Who knew?

I also packaged some up for a friend since she's never had a whoopie pie either. I had to get a little creative with the packaging since the main problem with whoopie pies is that they have a tendency to stick to each other and whatever it is they're sitting on. So if you want to wrap them (or stack them), I found that using wax paper is the best option. The creme gets a little smooshed, but the cookie stays intact and doesn't leave as much cookie residue behind (and it's important to get as much cookie in your mouth as possible, right?).

Whoopie pie candies. So Halloween appropriate.