Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Nothing says central Pennsylvania quite like a whoopie pie. Unless, of course, it’s an Amish buggy traffic jam or stinkbug infestations or a local population who uses the word “yous” to represent “you guys” or “y’all”.  Of course, central PA (and we do call ourselves by the letters---say ‘central Pee-Aye’) is also rolling hills and green farmlands and the sweet fragrance of Hershey’s chocolate in the air.  But I digress.

Someone told me recently that Maine thinks they invented the whoopie pie.  I have not actually checked my facts on this,  but I’m here to say, the whoopie pie was definitely from around here first, from the folks who also gave us shoo-fly pie and scrapple and horse-and-buggy traffic jams, and if yous people in Maine want to come down here to our rolling hills and stinkbugs and have a whoopie pie bakeoff, I would be up to the challenge.  Frankly, Maine, you stick with blueberries and lobsters and…whatever else comes from Maine.  We’ve got the whoopie pie covered, thankyouverymuch.

Your basic whoopie pie is created using two soft, yet sturdy chocolate cookies with a granulated sugar frosting in between (not confectioner’s sugar, because they didn’t have that back when the whoopie pie was invented.  Here.)  Now that the rest of the world has picked up on the whoopie pie, there are a lot of variations, probably none of which originate here, (and most of which use a confectioner’s sugar frosting) which include red velvet whoopie pies, whoopie pies with peanut butter frosting, pumpkin whoopie pies, chocolate chip whoopie pies, and so on. 

I’ve always made the basic whoopie pie, but thought I’d try doing a red velvet whoopie pie for a recent Super Bowl party.  I almost put blue frosting in the middle so they’d match the colors of the competing teams, but I restrained myself and went with white.    I used my whoopie pie recipe, which came from my former teacher aide, Kelly M., and googled how much red food coloring I should add. Google told me a whole bottle of red food coloring!  Which I thought was a lot.  I tried adding just half the bottle and it was a mistake.  They turned out more aubergine than red.  

I also made a cream cheese frosting, since that’s what usually goes with red velvet, but in the end, I think I liked the traditional frosting better, so I’ll give you both recipes.


Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
1 c. oil
2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
8 T. cocoa powder
1 c. milk
1-1/2 t. vanilla
1 ounce bottle red food coloring

~Cream oil and brown sugar.  Add all other ingredients except food coloring and mix well.  Add food coloring and mix well.
~Let mixture stand for a half hour.
~Drop by teaspoons onto a greased cookie sheet.  Try to drop them in a nice circular shape, as they will stay that shape when you bake them.  Also, try to keep them all the same size as they will need to be partnered up with a matching cookie later!
~Bake 8 minutes in a preheated, 375 degree oven.  Cool, then find matching cookies and sandwich them together with frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 softened,  8 oz. brick of cream cheese
1 softened stick of butter
3 c.confectioner’s sugar
1 t. vanilla
~Mix ingredients, must be refrigerated. 

Traditional Frosting
1/2 lb. butter
1 c. crisco
2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. milk
2 rounded t. flour
2 t. vanilla
~Mix all ingredients in a standing mixer at high speed for 15 minutes (you are melting the gran. sugar!)

I hope yous all enjoy the recipe.

I am linking this recipe with many other yummy recipes at Foodie Friday.