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Whoopie Pies are a classic New England dessert. Fudgy chocolate cake sandwiching a creamy and sweet marshmallow filling. So good!
Whenever my side of the family gets together for a visit, I always look forward to the delicious Whoopie Pies that my sister-in-law Pam brings along for dessert. This is one of Pam’s signature recipes (as well as this and this) – and when she sent me the recipe to share here on A Family Feast, she described these as the best whoopie pies ever! (She’s tried a number of different recipes over the years – so she knows!)
I have to agree! Soft, rich, dark chocolate mounds of cake sandwich a light and creamy marshmallow fluff filling. (I personally think this particular recipe for whoopie pies is the best because it isn’t too sweet. )
The history of whoopie pies (sometimes also called ‘gobs’) is interesting to read – and according to What’s Cooking America they are “…considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition… According to Amish legend, when children would find these treats in their lunch bags, they would shout “Whoopie!” (You can read more of the history here.)
And – before I share Pam’s delicious Whoopie Pie recipe, I wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of you. Today, A Family Feast officially turns two years old. Back then, Jack and I never dreamed that this little spot of ours on the web would grow into what it is today and we couldn’t have done it without you – our loyal and appreciative readers! We’re so excited to be starting another year of sharing great recipes and stories with all of you.
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Whoopie Pies
Whoopie Pies are a classic New England dessert. Fudgy chocolate cake sandwiching a creamy and sweet marshmallow filling. So good!
Ingredients
For the Batter
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (we used Nestle’s Special Dark)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (we used Crisco)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Filling
- 8 ounces marshmallow fluff (half of a 16-ounce container)
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (we used Crisco)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Approximately 1 tablespoon milk (to get filling to good consistency)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir to mix. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add egg, milk, and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Slowly add dry mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet mixture and mix well.
- Using a medium (1½ ounce) scoop, place scoops of the batter onto the prepared cookie sheets (about 12 per sheet).
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 6-7 minutes (they may look a little bit wet on top but that is OK). With a spatula, remove immediately to cool on a wire cooling rack.
- Once the cake mounds have cooled completely, prepare the filling by combining the marshmallow fluff, confectioners’ sugar, shortening and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until completely combined. Add milk as necessary to get to a soft (but not too soft consistency.)
- Using a scoop, place a dollop of the filling in the center of the flat side of one cake. Place a matching piece of cake against the filling and push to spread the filling evenly between the two halves. Repeat until all of the pies have been filled.
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Diane Fleming says
I am a retired pastry chef. I owmed my own bakery for quite a long time. I thought I had the best whoopie pie recipe but apparently I did not. Cake and filling are absolutely the best I have ever had. I cooked them for 7 minutes and they are delicious. If you want them alittle more done do 2 more minutes they will stillbe fudgey. If you like whoopie pies tbis recipe is for you. Thanks for sharing.
Martha says
Wow Diane! That’s very high praise and we’re thrilled you enjoyed our recipe so much!
Heidi says
Hello! Just made this recipe for the first time, and they are delicious, but they turned out a bit flat and smooth and don’t have the beautiful crinkly tops like yours. Can you suggest any changes to try? Changing oven temp? More flour? Also, I’m in Bozeman, MT at about 5000′ elevation so I’m wondering if that’s the culprit. Thank you!!!
Martha says
Hi Heidi – We live at close to sea level here in Massachusetts, so I just googled high altitude baking and at 5000 feet, you might be on to something! This is the article I read with some tips: https://www.wheatmontana.com/content/high-altitude-baking-how-make-your-recipes-work-mountains – otherwise, I’d also suggest that you check the freshness of the baking powder/soda. I’d personally try some of the suggestions in the article before raising the temp – I’d worry about burning since the oven temp on this recipe is already quite high. Good luck!
Sarah says
Followed the recipe to a T and they came out dry. Not sure how they got such high ratings
Martha says
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback Sarah. Every oven is different so you could try baking them for a little less time. I suspect they were dry from overbaking.
Margaret says
Hi Martha, Could you substitute Butter for the Crisco shortening?
Martha says
Hi Margaret – In general yes, you probably can. However shortening will give the cake a lighter texture. Butter contains water and shortening does not, so swapping in butter will make the cake more dense as the water cooks off as it bakes. For the filling – butter will also make the filling more dense but it will taste delicious!
Kathy says
I tried making whoopi pie cookies. The sugar and shortening didn’t really cream together and when I added the egg and milk it was very soupy???
Martha says
Not sure what happened Kathy – unless you mis-measured, I’m not sure why sugar and shortening wouldn’t cream together. The mixture will be wetter after adding egg and milk – and then you’d add the dry ingredients. Once mixed, the batter will resemble more of a thick cake batter than a cookie dough before baking.
JR says
Oh my. These were REALLY good.
Living in Maine, I went into this looking for the best Whoopie pie recipe. I am so sick of the prepackaged ones all over the place here and my favorite bakery went out of business.
The grocery stores and gas stations that make them look so good, but they’re soooo disappointing!!! Downright gross sometimes 😂
So I only made half a batch since it was a test run. I even measured the egg after I whipped it and it came out to a 1/4 cup so I measured out an 1/8 and save the rest for breakfast LOL
It made 5 pies total I love the blob style that came out from my 3 TB of batter. And yes the batter is gluey but so what??
6 min on 450 was perfect!.
And when I bit in, the cake part surprised me with with how fudgy it was!!!
This was fun, thanks!!
Martha says
You’re welcome – so glad you enjoyed the recipe JR!
Laurie Johnson says
These look delicious, and I am in the process of making them today. I am not getting 16 pies out of this recipe. I weighed my dough and each scoop of batter was around 1.5 ounces. I got enough for 7 large pies . For the rest I used a small meatball scoop to get 3 more for the kids. After baking, the large cakes weighed between 1 3/8 and 1 5/8 ounces. The little ones were 7/8 ounce to 1 ounce. The large ones baked just fine at 450 degrees for 7 minutes which tells me the size I made was correct. The little ones baked for 4.5 minutes. I think for us, I am better off using a rounded meatball scoop to get the size I am looking for. Do you know what diameter your cakes measure? My large ones measure 3 to 3.25 inches. I am shipping half of this recipe to my grandchildren in North Carolina for Valentines day. The cake tastes amazing. Any advice you can give me to get to 16 pies per recipe would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Martha says
Hi Laurie – Off the top of my head, I don’t know the exact measurements. I’m sorry…I will plan to measure them a bit more precisely the next time we make this recipe.
Lisa Thibodeaux says
This is a top notch whoopie pie recipe… it is now my absolute go-to. It results in the necessary balance of internal and external textures — it can handle a filling, can be eaten by hand, but also is super moist and cake-like. The cooking temp of 450 is an important feature, too. I might add that the biggest problem with other whoopie pie recipes is that they just use a basic cookie recipe and add a filling — that is not a true whoopie pie… this is!
Martha says
Thanks Linda! So glad you approve! 🙂
Shannon Greenwood says
My mom made these all throughout my childhood, and this is the closest copycat I have found to her original recipe! Thank you so much for sharing! When she passed away, I thought I would never get to taste this version again and they came out beautifully.
I have a few small tweaks I would suggest – based totally on personal preference – from what I remember from my moms recipe: she used Hershey’s Cocoa Powder for the chocolate cakes, and always changed the vanilla to almond extract in the creme filling, and she preferred the butter flavored Crisco. Those were her special twists and I think it makes all the difference! Also, I halved the recipe and it still came out great if you just want a small batch. But who would want that?! I only did it because I didn’t have enough fluff on hand!
Martha says
Thanks Shannon – so glad we were able to share a recipe similar to your mom’s!
Alison Paris says
Hi!
I’m in the middle of making the Whoopie Pies.
There are just 2 of us, so I was wondering if these can be frozen?
Thanks
💖
Martha says
Hi Alison – We haven’t tried freezing them ourselves. If you try, I’d suggest wrapping them individually before freezing. Please let us know how it works out!