Whoopie Pies, Falmouth, Maine, photo by alcinoe, 2006, image released to public domain.
I’m having way too much fun with these old family recipes. The comfort foods we grew up with connect to memories. And memories connect to family stories. In a comment on Memories, Writing, & Family Recipes, Mom mentioned the delectable Whoopie Pie and my nostrils curled with the scent of little cocoa cakes rising in the oven.
What’s a Whoopie Pie?
I can tell you what it’s not. It’s not a cookie, or a cupcake, and, nope, not a MoonPie. I had to do a little research on the history of the Whoopie Pie, and found an excellent account at What’s Cooking America. Originally made from leftover batter, this chocolaty dessert didn’t emerge from my Southern roots, but much further north in Lancaster County (locals emphasize the 1st syllable in Lancaster, the last two falling away quickly), the emerald Pennsylvania Dutch Country, 15 or 20 minutes from home.
Home is a relative term. For me, home was the Deep South from birth to age 12: Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. But from ages 13 to 21, I lived in a rural area of Central Pennsylvania where my mother and most of the family still reside. The cultural differences in North and South speak for themselves. But one of the things that happens when families crisscross the U.S., digging up and replanting roots, is the adoption and adaptation of geographical foods and culture. If you’ve traveled around this country in culinary delight, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
All that said, I do come by the Whoopie Pie honestly. When tackling the family ancestry, Mom discovered that my great grandfather (on her side) grew up in Coatesville, Pennsylvania; the rest of the family roots are in South Carolina and Georgia. My Southern grandmother also met and married a Pennsylvanian when she lived with us a few years in the 1960’s.
Miraculously, she convinced the genteel Yankee to fly South for the winter, and the two of them eventually moved back to Georgia (probably taking the Whoopie recipe with them!). I guess you could say the family history is a proud mix of North and South, which makes the palette of foods we enjoy that much richer!
How Did the Whoopie Pie Get Its Name?
Mom emailed the recipe (below) for Whoopie Pies; it was adopted by my sister (another excellent cook and baker following in the tradition of my mother). Whoopie Pies are also a New England specialty, and one of Maine’s great comfort foods. Check out Labadie’s Bakery site to order the Maine Whoopie Pie in every size imaginable. They’ve been baking them since 1925.
I even found a recipe for Red Velvet Whoopie Pies (see Red Velvet Cake commentary at Home & Hearth – On Turning 70). But the best way to experience this treat is to head out to Pennsylvania Dutch Country for the real deal. The Amish have been passing the pies down for generations and you can often buy them at mom-and-pop roadside stands across the area.
But how did the scrumptious Whoopie Pie get its name? According to Amish legend, when children would find these treats in their lunch bags, they would shout “Whoopie!”
My thoughts exactly. Here’s to making Whoopies. Whoop on!
How To Make Whoopie Pies
Shopping List – Pies
1 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 c. hot water
1 c. sour milk (or buttermilk)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
4 c. flour (plain)
2/3 c. cocoa (add water to cocoa)
1/2 tsp. salt
Cooking Instructions:
Mix hot water and cocoa and set aside. Cream shortening and sugar, then add eggs, one at a time. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Add buttermilk alternately with flour, then add cocoa mixture. Spoon by teaspoonfuls (or tablespoon, depending on how large you want them) onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees – about 8 minutes.
Shopping List – Filling
2 egg whites
2 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbsp. flour
1 c. Crisco
4 c. 10X Powdered sugar
4 Tbsp. milk
Cooking Instructions:
Beat egg whites, vanilla, flour, and Crisco all together. Add powdered sugar alternately with milk; beat well. When pies are cool, spread a giant scoop of filling on a pie. Place another pie on top, and gently press together. (You might want to wrap them individually to store, as they tend to stick to each other.) Enjoy!
You can also freeze Whoopie Pies and eat them later. That’s good to know for one and two person households! Liz and I made way too much banana pudding over Thanksgiving!
-posted on red Ravine, Friday, December 14th, 2007
Ummm… I might try these!
Yasmeen
http://www.ywrites.wordpress.com
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Whoopie!
My husband is from Lancaster county. It’s good of you to provide pronunciation guidelines because I can tell you from long experience that Lancaster county residents are particular about how you say Lancaster.
For further guidance, keep in mind that the emphasized “Lanc” sounds like “lank.”
I’ve seen whoopie pies all over Amish country (including here in Ohio), but in all these years I’ve never tried one. I may have to remedy that soon. There are so many good desserts in that area. My personal favorite is shoo-fly pie.
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Robin, ain’t it the truth. Let’s just say, in Pennsylvania it’s NOT pronounced like Burt Lancaster pronounces his name (which is the way I hear most people here pronounce Lan-cas-ter). 8)
And I like how you added the “lank.”
Oh, I hope you get to try the Whoopie Pie soon. And shoo-fly pie…I’m trying to remember what that’s like. I can’t recall the taste. Is it kind of like pecan pie without the pecans?
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ywrites, let us know how you like ’em. Especially way over in England. And if you’d ever heard of them over there!
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mmmm…whoopie pies…er, I mean …dilly bars…mmmm.
Shoo fly pie tastes so SWEEEETTTT!
I had shoo fly pie in Mt. Joy, PA. Does anyone know where that is?
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Anything with cocoa – mmmm
ybonesy, just a short note for you because in a comment a while back, you asked to be kept posted on whether I made contact with an old girlfriend I found on Facebook. I did contact her. The results were… uh… well go see. 🙂
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No, they’re new to me, but yeah, I’ll try and make some!
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Hmmm, when I look at the photo of them, I see something that has ice cream in the middle. Why? I guess I’ve seen something similar at my favorite ice cream store, Dairy Queen.
But then I read the part about how it got its name. Kids open up their lunch bags and see the pie — Whoopie! If it were ice cream, they’d grab their lunch bags and the bottom would break open with melted ice cream and chocolate all over their laps.
So finally, I read the recipe. Not ice cream at all. It’s so funny to have a mental picture of something and then have it all fall to pieces.
BTW, red velvet whoopie pies??? Wild!
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leslie, I couldn’t remember where Mount Joy was and had to look it up. It is in Lancaster Country in the Susquehanna Valley. I usually run into this link to Bube’s Brewery (LINK) when I search in that area. Interesting place with the German ancestry and the catacombs. It’s got a couple of restaurants inside, too.
There’s the Mount Joy Diner and the Cameron Estate Inn and Restaurant. Could you have had your shoo-fly pie there? 8) I still can’t remember what shoo-fly pie is made of.
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ybonesy, I wonder what it would be like to have the Dairy Queen delight you are speaking of when the cookie part is warm and fresh from the oven and then you scoop homemade vanilla ice cream into the middle of two cookies and yum! The Dairy Queen ones have been frozen for so long, the chocolate part sometimes gets crumbly and old. I’d love to have a fresh one there sometime!
The Whoopie Pie does kind of look like the Dairy Queen ice cream sandwich (which I do like, BTW). It makes me wonder if the DQ treat is an adaptation of the Whoopie Pie through ice cream. It’s interesting to think about.
Check out this History of Dairy Queen LINK. It first began in Joliet, Illinois in 1940. My coveted Pecan Mudslide didn’t debut until 1999.
And leslie, the Dilly Bar was first created in 1955!
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Shoo-fly pie is made with molasses. There’s a wet bottom version (gooey) and a dry bottom version (more cake-like). Both versions have a crumb topping (similar to coffee cake).
I prefer the wet bottom shoo-fly pie.
leslie: I know where Mt. Joy, PA is. My husband grew up near there.
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The look squooshable. You learn a little about everything if you hang around here long enough.
(that song, ‘makin whoopie’ flew immediately to mind… And yet they’re so wholesome! Scandal-free desserts.)
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Oh gosh! Those whoopie pies look soooo yummy! I gew up in South Western PA. We also had a lot of Amish folks in that area. I moved to South Central PA in 1979. I visited my hometown quite often. Part of the route took me to Route 30 West. Right outside of Bedford PA was a bake shop, open only on week-ends & operated by a small group of Amish ladies. “The Little Bake Shop” as it was called. I never missed a stop there. They made whoopie pies of all flavors. They had pumpkin ones, oatmeal ones, & peanut butter ones as well as the chocolate ones. Shoo-fly pies (I also prefer the wet ones. You name a Dutch style dessert & they made it! Now, my grandmother also made a great whoopie pie. I looked at the recipe listed in the post & all of the whoopie pies I have had had a cooked filling. No confectioners sugar. They were made with granulated sugar . I guess more of a butter cream frosting. Well,alas the bake shop eventually closed & it is now just a memory. Since I don’t enjoy baking (Love to cook, hate to bake) I must rely on other family members for the sweet stuff. My claim to fame is my macaroni & cheese. K & Grits in Pa’s daughter are my biggest fans. My husband has joked that on my headstone it will read “She made great macaroni & Cheese!” Thanks for this post QM! D
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Whoopieeeee! (sorry, had to say it . LOL!)
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LB, I’d be disappointed if you hadn’t said it!
Robin, thanks for the update on Shoo-fly pie. I think I’ve had the wet bottom (kind of like pecan bottom) crust. When you mention the coffee cake crumbs, I kind of remember it now. I’m not sure if I like it. There was some kind of spice in it that I remember was strange for me. But I’d have to taste it again.
amuirin, these scandal-free Whoopies are indeed kind of squooshable. But not like sponge cake. They seem to get their squooshableness from the filling in the middle. Yum. I haven’t had them in a long time. Maybe we’ll make them after Christmas. We are starting to tackle our Holiday desserts for a Solstice gathering coming up Saturday. Can’t wait!
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D., interesting about the pumpkin, oatmeal, & peanut butter, and chocolate Whoopie Pies. I don’t think I’ve ever had any of those. Quite the adaptation.
So you make your Whoopies with a kind of butter cream cooked filling? And no confectioners sugar, but granulated sugar. It would be fun to compare the taste with these other Whoopie recipes. When I went back and looked at the ones in the links in this post, they, too, use the powdered sugar. I wonder which is the original?
I love the idea for your headstone – “She made great Macaroni & Cheese!” (Sounds exactly like my brother’s sense of humor!). I’ve had your mac and cheese at family gatherings. It’s delicious. Looking forward to it again the next time I’m home!
You know, it’s a wonder any of the smaller bakeries like The Little Bake Shop can stay open at all. I think many of the smaller bakeries are just, as you say, memories these days. There are a few left in the Twin Cities that I can think of. And people will go out of their way to stop and buy their baked goods. Home baking is the best.
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QM, I’m wondering which came first. Kind of the ole chicken or egg dilema. Perhaps that is the difference between the granulated & confectioners sugar. I have a Lancaster County cookbook & both icing recipes are in it for the whoopie pies. Hmmm….D
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Robin,
Leslie here. I visited Mount Joy with a girlfriend and her mother. I was probably about 12 or 13. We were there to see my girlfriend’s Mennonite grandmother. I was told that I had to be extremely polite, and that she wouldn’t like me anyway. I thought that was pretty funny 🙂
I had a toothache, but when we stopped at a restaurant after the visit, I ate shoo-fly pie anyway. That’s likely why I remember it as SWEET.
QuoinMonkey, It was a very busy restaurant that felt like an old house in town, converted to a restaurant. I don’t remember the name, but it certainly could have been the Cameron Inn.
I was about four when Dilly bars were invented, and I am older that PEZ.
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Methinks a Red Ravine Cookbook online would be in order…
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leslie, you’re older than PEZ?! In Snagglepuss lingo, Heavens to mercatroid! (I have no idea if I’m spelling that right.) I guess the only other question is – were you polite enough to pass muster for your friend’s grandmother? (Isn’t that a strange phrase…pass muster?) Oh, I forgot, love the red Ravine cookbook idea. But who is going to do the cooking?
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I think we should add an adaptation of whoopie pies to the red Ravine cookbook: TA-DA…introducing the Mac-n-cheese Whoopie Pie! 8)
Or use Pez pills to put a decorative border on the inner rim of the white filling.
The possibilities with just Whoopie Pies are endless … think of all the other things we could do with the food we love.
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http://www.lesliehawes.com/wordpress/?p=19
I didn’t pass muster with Grandma. No one ever did. I think Grandma was in a stage of ‘personality loss’, and maybe was just real hard to please, to boot.
We didn’t stay long, so I suffered no damage 🙂
Isn’t it funny the odd things you remember, though?
I can remember focusing on the doilies she had crocheted. They were everywhere. And the house was made of red brick, kind of Gothic vintage, and I could see the brick from the tall windows.
I was a polite kid, so I knew I did OK, regardless.
If you do a Red Ravine Cookbook, you would have ‘contributing’ recipes, like the contributing writers. And everybody would be the cooks, like you have blog readers, and then we could submit recipe reviews as comments.
“the Mac-n-cheese Whoopie Pie was both tangy and sweet, but I would not recommend it as an appetizer at a stand up buffet function.”
See how easy this is?
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“The Pez studded Dilly Bar was a smash hit at my last stand up buffet function. Anything on a stick…”
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Banana Pudding Whoopie Pies…use big versions of vanilla wafers, and banana studded pudding fluff in the middle….
It could happen!
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Yum. Anything with buttermilk or sour cream, plus chocolate… I’m in heaven! And red velvet! I’ve got to try these. Thanks for reviving some American favorites. This is classic Americana.
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“Banana Pudding Whoopie Pies on a stick made their debut at the Minnesota State Fair…”
“Would you like Pez sprinkles on yours?”
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Whoopie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you know you can make Whoopie Pies from almost and cake receipe ? And put any frosting in them that is stiff enough? Hence left over batter QM mentioned as a beginning of them.
ittybiddie, the regular sugar filling was either buttercream or seven minute boiled frosting. Both would work.Now you have me hungry for them.! I have the makings for a banana pudding so I think I’ll go make that instead.
I also have to put my blackeye peas in soak for tomorrow. Catch you later.
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I’m not so sure we should go into the “other” making whoopie on the Redravine !!! But it is a lot of fun to make!!!
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Do whoopie pies freeze well? My soon-to-be husband is Mennonite and we’d like to give little whoopie pies as favors at the wedding. Is it best to freeze them in plastic wrap? How long will they last? Does it change the texture?
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kk, that sounds delightful. I remembered that I’d read you can freeze them. And then I had to go search for it again. But I found this at What’s Cooking America (the link to their whoopie pie post is in the piece above):
As far as the texture changing, I’ll have to ask Mom about that one. Or maybe GritsInPa or alittlediddy know. I’ll have to get back to you on that part (it’s the other women in my family who are the great cooks and bakers!)
It’s a good question though. Freezing can many times change the texture. But What’s Cooking America doesn’t mention that at all.
Happy baking! And congrats on your wedding!
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kk, I wanted to get back to you, in case you check this post again. I did talk to Mom about freezing the Whoopie Pies. She said she wouldn’t recommend it. Depending on the type of frosting, it can crystallize or change the texture of the cake parts. She said a butter frosting usually freezes okay though.
If you are going to freeze them, she recommended just freezing the cake parts, and adding the frosting later when it’s fresh. But, overall, she wasn’t big on freezing them.
If you go to the What’s Cooking America link in the post, she says you can freeze them (as I quoted above). So maybe read everything you can and make your own decision about what you are willing to chance. Or make a small batch before hand and try freezing them to see how they come out. Good luck!
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QM, so glad you spoke to MOM about this. It was a part of our discussion on our girl’s day bus trip to Atlantic City on Monday. Gritsinpa, MOM, & I got to talking about red Ravine & someone brought up this idea of freezing the whoopie pies. I think we were all pretty much on the same page. I would not suggest freezing them at all. I think even the cake part would have a different texture & taste after the freezing & thawing process. I would suggest finding a good bakery & have a professional make them. D
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diddy, I heard about your Girl’s Day Out trip to Atlantic City! Sounded like fun. Yes, I called Mom yesterday to get the low-down on freezing the Whoopie Pies and she said you all had talked about it. So there’s a consensus – freezing is not a great idea.
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i would suggest in your filling recipe not adding the egg whites. eating raw egg doesn’t sound too good. we omit the egg in our filling and just add a bit of milk to make up for the egg. and wrapping them up i think makes them last longer, and i think they become more moist. we prefer them after a few days wrapped up.
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auria, thanks for the input. I do seem to remember the wrapping making them more moist. I’ll leave it up to the readers whether to go egg whites or sans egg whites. Appreciate your comment!
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I’ve never heard of a whoopie pie before this, but I can tell you truthfully that I crave for one now. Thanks for the recipe, I’m definitely going to look into it.
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LCRE, thanks for stopping by. I must say, I’m surprised you live in Lancaster and have never heard of the Whoopie Pie. I guess there is something to that old idea of getting away from home (or our own hometown) to gain a fresh perspective. It must go for reading what others write about our hometowns, too. Again, I appreciate your comment. If you try out the Whoopie Pies, let us know how you like them.. 8)
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I trid this recipe and I think you’ve gotten something written down wrong here! It was terrible. The beginning of the cake/cookie part turned out like a cream rather than a dough. I think this should be revised.
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Charlotte, sorry to hear they didn’t turn out for you. As far as I know, the recipe is correct. But it’s possible there is a typo. I’ll have to check with my mother and/or sister and ask if they’ll double check it for me. Thanks for leaving your comment.
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Oh, my goodness. After Charlotte’s comment, I’ve been meaning to ask my family about clarifying this recipe but forgot all about it — until now.
I was just reshelving some old cookbooks and found one of my mother’s from the 1960’s. It’s a What’s Cookin’ Ladies Auxiliary compilation cookbook she had given me with a bunch of her recipes in it. And there (on pages 78 and 79) is her Whoopie Pie recipe.
I’m sorry to say that I did make a typo when adding the amount of flour to the original blog post. Instead of 1 cup of flour, it should be 4 cups of flour. And I profusely apologize to anyone (including Charlotte) who might have tried this recipe before now. No wonder her dough turned out creamy rather than doughy.
I take full responsibility and have corrected the flour from 1 to 4 cups. And I just went back into this post with a fine-toothed comb and made sure the rest of it was correct. It has been perfect all along — except for that pesky flour! Thanks to Charlotte for bringing it to my attention.
All is well with the recipe now. And I may even post a few more of Mom’s family recipes in the coming days. I’m so happy to have this cookbook that she passed down to me. Along with a second 25+-year-old Home Interiors cookbook complete with little photos and notes from founder Mary C. Crowley.
It reminds me that women used to compile these printed cookbooks, long before the Internet and pass down their recipes. The recipes in these two books look typed out on a typewriter. They were printed by a little publishing company out of Kansas City, Kansas. Onward with the homemade Whoopie Pies!
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Oh, just found another North Dakota Women’s Clubs cookbook that Liz’s grandmother had given her. Similar to the ones I found of my mother’s and from around the same time period. I think her grandmother had a sweet tooth; lots of ND recipes from Caroline for caramels, chocolate fudge, Ice Box Cookies, and apple fritters. I’m getting really hungry organizing these shelves. 8)
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I suggest buying a cookbook from Lancaster County PA. They have the original whoopie pie recipes. I’ll locat my cookbook & I’m certain it is available on line. The recipes in it are the closest to my memories of the ones I recall eating when when I was younger. However, there is a HUGE difference between 1 cup & 4 cups of flour! D
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Just located the cookbook. It is in fact titled Lacaster County Cookbook, written by Loiuse Stoltzfus & Jan Mast. It is published by Good Books in Intercourse, PA. Website is http://www.goodbks.com. Hope this helps…D
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diddy, forgot to get back to you on this comment. Hey, thanks for the link to the Lancaster County Cookbook. Appreciate you looking that up. The Whoopie Pie recipe in the body of this post is also corrected now. And is the one that Mom and my sister used when we were growing up. I really used to love them.
I think I’ll consider making them next time I am craving something sweet and see how they come out. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a Whoopie Pie. Probably many moons ago in Pennsylvania. Don’t recall ever seeing a Whoopie Pie in Minnesota. And now I’m kind of craving them. 8) Thanks again!
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Liz just came home from the grocery store with what else? a couple of Whoopie Pies from Mainely Pastries in Wayzata, MN. Wow, they were great and tasted a lot like homemade. Really delicious if you don’t have time to make them homemade.
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