For as long as I can remember, my mother’s whoopie pie recipe has been a family favorite. Whenever my uncle in New Hampshire comes up to visit, my aunt sends him home with a batch. So I thought it fitting that, while gearing up for my visit to the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival (this past weekend in Dover-Foxcroft) I should make a batch myself. I knew that we’d be trying a number of different variations on the theme at the festival, so I stuck with tradition and made my mom’s classic chocolate pies with light, fluffy filling.
At the festival, we sampled a number of unique varieties, such as Jalapeño Apple, Blueberry Cream Cheese, Pink Lemonade and Paul Bunyan, a maple bacon confection. We were tempted with still more, in particular a vibrant watermelon creation that was, sadly, not being sampled out when we were at that booth. Between our $5 entry fee and an additional $1 in sample tokens each, we had more than our fill of creamy, cakey treats, and wandered the festival for a while to work off the excess.
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The elusive, vibrant watermelon whoopie pie. In the background are Berry Blue Ox and Pink Lemonade, as well as, I believe, an orange creamsicle version.
I returned home both disappointed that I hadn’t seen a single Moxie whoopie pie, and intent to create my own. Basing it on a molasses whoopie pie recipe, I boiled the soda down into a syrup — 3 liters of soda became 1 1/4 c. of condensed Moxie flavor. I hope you enjoy them, and my mother’s recipe, as much as we did.
Mom’s Classic Whoopie Pies
Cookie:
- 6 tbsp. shortening
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 c. milk
- 2 c. flour
- 5 tbsp. cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla. Blend in milk, flour, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Place tablespoon-sized dollops onto lightly greased cookie sheets and bake 5-7 minutes.
Filling:
- 5 tbsp. flour
- 1 c. milk
- 1 c. shortening
- 1 c. butter
- 1 c. sugar
- vanilla and salt to taste
Combine flour with milk in a saucepan over low heat with a wooden spoon until it is a thick paste. The spoon should stand up in the pan. Cool in refrigerator. Cream together sugar, butter and shortening and add to flour mixture (as well as salt and vanilla.) Blend thoroughly with a hand mixer. Sandwich filling between two cookies.
Fia’s Moxie Whoopie Pies
Cookie:
- 3/4 c. vegetable shortening
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 c. reduced Moxie
- 2 1/4 c. flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 c. buttermilk
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together shortening and sugar; add egg and beat with a hand mixer until fluffy. Add reduced Moxie and buttermilk, and continue to beat. Separately, sift together flour, salt and baking soda, and add mixture a bit at a time to the wet ingredients. Beat until well-combined and drop onto a greased cookie sheet by the tablespoonful. Bake 7-12 minutes or until firm.
Filling:
- 1 c. shortening
- 3 c. confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 c. Moxie syrup
- 1 c. marshmallow Fluff
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and sandwich between cookies.
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