Ginger Whoopie Pies

OK, after the Macaron, the next most talked about thing in baking at the moment has to be the Whoopie Pie.  Not one to get sucked in too quick to the latest craze I have held off on these babies too.  Now, quite surprisingly for a female - I am NOT a chocolate fan.  It can sit in my house for weeks at a time and I won't touch it. Don't get me wrong, if its the only thing there is I will eat it but given a choice between a choccy desert or a nice apple crumble ? the crumble wins hands down.  Fruity over chocolate every time.


Unsurprisingly then, my foray into the Whoopie Pie has not been with chocolate.  They come in many flavours but I have opted for ginger in some kind of a replica of a "Ginger Kiss".  I adored these as a child but my husband fails to remember them.  Apparently so the story goes,  the name for these little cake sandwiches came from the Amish people in North America.  The men, upon finding one of these little beauties in their lunch pail were often found to exclaim - "Whoopie !"  hence the name.


Anyway, they are like 2 half cupcakes sandwiched together with either a buttercream or marshmallow filling between the two halves.


These have turned out just beautifully despite adapting the American recipe to Oz measurements not to mention Gluten Free.


I have used a lemon buttercream filling but a cream cheese icing with a little lemon zest in it would also be outstanding.


Ingredients
8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter at Room Temperature
3/4 Cup light Brown Sugar - firmly packed
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 + 3/4 Cups Plain GF Flour
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
3 teaspoons ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Pinch Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil (I used Macadamia Oil)
1/3 Cup Treacle or Molasses (I used Treacle - Golden Syrup would work too)
1/2 Cup Natural Yoghurt or Sour Cream (I used half and half)


Filling
2 Cups Pure Icing Sugar
25g Softened Unsalted Butter
1 Large Lemon

1. Preheat Oven to 160 Celsius Fan forced or 180C if not.
2. In a large bowl, cream your butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy then beat in your egg and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, combine with a balloon whisk, the GF flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger along with the baking soda and salt - set aside.
4. Then in a smallish bowl you need to mix together your wet ingredients and give them a little mix around.
5. Continue using your electric mixer and alternately ad in the we and dry mixes to the large bowl until until combined.
6. I used a shallow-round bottomed patty tin to bake these scarping in the mix and using my spatula to level them in and fill the holes.  This gave a nice smooth rounded pie.  You could just pipe the mix into circles or place drops onto a baking sheet.  Be sure however to make them the same size as you will need to sandwich them.
7. Bake for approx 7-10 minutes - they don't take long until a wooden skewer comes out clean.
8. Remove and cool then prepare your filling.
9. In your mixing bowl combine the softened butter and the icing sugar beating well with electric beaters.  Grate the zest of the lemon into the bowl and beat in.  Then use the juice of the lemon to mix the icing to the desired consistency that will be able to sandwich the pies together.

Voila - Whoopie Pies!!

Enjoy,

L x