Whoopies

Whoopies, also known as whoopie pies, are part cookie, part cake, part sandwich, and entirely a regional obsession. The dispute over their origin runs hot. Maine claims them as the official state treat, while the Pennsylvania Dutch insist their grandmothers were making them generations earlier. Either way, two soft chocolate cake-rounds get sandwiched around a fluffy white shortening-and-egg-white filling.

The cookies aren’t really cookies. They’re more like tiny cake disks, leavened with both baking powder and baking soda for serious lift, and the alternating flour/milk technique keeps the gluten from overdeveloping. They bake up domed, soft, and slightly chewy.

The filling is the classic 7-minute frosting cousin: beaten egg whites whipped with shortening, vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar until silky. Sandwich while the cookies are fully cool or the filling melts.

Pro Tips

• Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons, not tablespoons. Too much dough means uneven baking and oversized sandwiches.
• Cool the cookies completely before filling. Warm cookies turn the filling into a runny mess.
• Beat the filling on high speed for at least 5 minutes. The volume and lightness depend on whipping plenty of air into the egg whites.
• Wrap individual whoopie pies in plastic. They store at room temperature for 3 days and freeze for a month.

Variations

• Add 1 teaspoon of espresso powder to the cookie batter to amplify the chocolate.
• Use peppermint extract in the filling for chocolate-mint whoopie pies.
• Roll the edges of the filled pies in mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, or chopped nuts for decoration.