Over the next year, I will be baking my way through the Whoopie Pies cookbook by Sarah Billingsley and Amy Treadwell. Just like Julia and Julia. Sort of. Except without the weird glazed duck recipes. And just whoopie pies. In every possible flavor combination. I have assembled a fab team of taste testers and they will provide reviews of the recipes. For more on Whoopie Pie Wednesday, click here.
To kick off Whoopie Pie Wednesday, well, the original Whoopie Pie seemed like a great place to start. So I picked the Classic whoopie pie with the chocolate cookies and vanilla buttercream filling.
Chocolate batter:
I love how chocolate batter gets so much darker when baked.
Cookies ready to be baked and look like little piles of...well, use your imaginations.
Fresh out of the oven!!!
Buttercream! One of my favorite things in the world!!!!
Despite having my own buttercream recipe that I love love love, I used the recipe in the book. It was pretty good!
The finished product!
Preparing the official taste tester samples! Cute, right?
I am trying to be green in this project so I am using the Paper Sandwich and Snack Bag by If You Care. These bags are made using unbleached greaseproof paper, vegetable-based inks for printing, non-toxic glues, are totally chlorine-free, and are compostable. And they only cost $2.49 for 48 bags at Whole Foods.
And now I turn the blog over to my team of taste testers…
I have assembled a fairly fabulous team of taste testers. All of the testers are friends and colleagues of mine (they will be identified by first name only…and some have picked aliases…though I may start a Meet the Taste Tester feature later on). It is sweet opportunity for each of them to taste some treats and exercise their food critic skills.
On Tuesday, each of them received a sample bag and an a little thank you and instruction card :
The taste tester’s responsibility is fairly simple: “Taste it. Love it. Hate it. Be indifferent to it. Email me about it.” That is really all. I wanted to let them run which every direction they chose in writing the review. Each week I will post the feedback they give me. Mostly unedited. Good and bad. I have learned that people let the opinions flow when it comes to trying baked goods. I ALWAYS read good and bad recipe reviews online; in the middle is the likely outcome. And I have no doubt that my taste testers will perform like rockstars. The first round of comments below certainly confirmed that. I had so much fun reading them!
Reviews of the Classic Whoopie Pie:
Shirin
First of all THANKS! The pie was yummy! My initial reaction was that the cake on the outside was a little dry, but I think that's because I prefer a LOT of icing inside the pies themselves (I know, sugar overload). However, the flavor of the icing combined with the chocolaty flavor of the cake was delicious!
Rebecca's Note: I would agree with Shirin's sentiments about the outside cake being dry but I too love the icing. I could literally just eat the icing. Also, I really do not like chocolate cake so I will never be the best critic of chocolate cake-y substances.
I don't care for the chocolate (cake?) part because I don't like chocolate. Also maybe the cake part was a little dry - but I have little experience with whoopies so I don't know what I am comparing it to. As you move through the book I will have more to base my opinions on I think. The icing was very good. Reminded me of the icing in an oatmeal cream pie.
Rebecca's Note: I think sharing a cubicle wall with Natalie for so long resulted in us having a Whoopie Pie Mind Meld because if I were to write a review of this Whoopie Pie, it would basically be the same as hers. Also, now I want an oatmeal cream pie.
Liz
Thanks for the Whoopie Pie! The cake reminded me of devils food cake, which I Love. I wish I had a cold glass of milk to drink with it... mmmm... sorry I don't have much to say, I don't think I've actually eaten a whoopie pie (at least I don't remember if I have) so I haven't got much to compare it to.
Rebecca's Note to Self: Remember to serve with milk next time.
I would consider this the "classic" whoopie pie -- and this one was very good! Just the right amount of filling, not too gooey.
Rebecca's Note: A lot of research went into determining the appropriate filling to cookie ratio...okay, not really.
The inaugural Whoopie Pie of Whoopie Pie Wednesday was really yummy! It actually wasn't what I was expecting from a whoopie pie. I always thought of Whoopie Pies as chocolate with marshmallow in the middle. Perhaps that is one retailer's version that has always stuck in my head. But the buttercream icing (which is one of my favorites already) was delish! And how can you go wrong with buttercream & chocolate??? You can't...its impossible.
I am looking forward to the other "versions" of whoopie pies that will be featured! I almost wish I could go through them all first and then rank them. Perhaps then I need to start a numerical grading system that allows for decimal places so that I can infinitely put some above others....(hehe math nerd).
I must comment on the absolutely awesome Whoopie Pie Sample packaging! Sooooo cute and it felt super official :-) I love it!
I hope you enjoy baking/packaging/collecting reviews/writing up this feature as much as we will enjoy tasting it! :-) (Any plans to make your own whoopie pie recipes?)
Ok...official grading system is 0-10, 10 being the best. I think I will give this a modest 8.5. While I love the chocolate & buttercream combo....I need to leave some breathing room above...and I think there is a good chance that something could beat it.
Rebecca's Note: I now aspire for the perfect 10...and to stick the landing. And yep, I definitely hope to develop my own Whoopie Pie recipes along the way.
"Mexico Ron"
I give this whoopie pie a solid 9/10. I wanted to leave some room for a higher score since this is a weekly thing. I will list some suitable quotes for the blog.
- "This whoopie pie is unstoppable"
- "...A symphony of flavor"
- "... this is what dreams are made of"
- "It's like an oreo made of cupcakes, a miracle of modern science... truly amazing" (Rebecca’s Note: I love this one!)
- "just delightful"
Rebecca's Note: I have already told "Mexico Ron" that if Whoopie Pie Wednesday is made into a movie, he is in charge of writing the quotes for the movie poster.
And finally, this last one made me smile and laugh and left me impressed with the level of detail.
“Carmen Sandiego” (Remember her from the Holiday Gift Guide?):
So, my colleague, Rebecca (is she still a colleague, if she moved down the hall?) (Rebecca's note: Yes, we are still colleagues...you all are not getting rid of me entirely any time soon. ) gave me the opportunity to taste test a whoopie pie. It started off something like, would I like to taste a whoopie pie and give feedback? I mean did anyone approached say, no? Certainly not me. Oh, I'm supposed to punctuate my remarks with multiples!!!
So, I get my special delivery order. (Does anyone get a FedEx of the treat???) (Rebecca: Yes, my parents. But it will be shipped Priority Mail with the Post Office and this week it will be delivered in person via American Airlines.) With instructions. Well, first I noted that I got a whoopie pie wednesday on Tuesday. Then, when I read the particulars, everything was revealed (something from hypnosis, can't remember the reference, is that what the web is for? haven't logged in today. trying to be productive). Good golly, I'll be a taste tester, and the project has multiple deliveries spread across Mondays for a repeating Whoopie Wednesday feature. Oh, my, how did I luck into this?
And, there are two things to comment on:
1. Beautiful presentation - The teal/brown two-toned instructions have on one side the whoopie logo and on the other side masterfully highlights the most important information in brown (versus teal for the background information). The sample itself is in a functional brown bag and has its own logo sticker. I feel like I'm going to be opening the envelope to find out the winner of the baked good category of the academy awards. It looks tantalizing. So much promise. I can just make out a pie. Oh, I'm getting hungry.
2. I'm supposed to send my remarks to iwbadg@gmail.com. Seems like too much to remember. I'm planning to send my feedback to the email that's easier for me. (I hope she's not too put out by that.) (Rebecca’s Note: Nope, not at all.) I open the pack. And it smells good. It looks good...the top resembles the topography of a dry river bed. Very appealing. I think this one is probably the classic.
And then I take a bite. And my impression is tastes like a ho ho. Or is it a devil dog? (Rebecca’s Note: What’s a devil dog?) I haven't eaten those Hostess individually-packaged treats in a while. Or maybe like a slider that's a baked good. Aren't sliders little hamburgers the same size as this Whoopie pie? And I wonder what's the minimum criteria to be a whoopie pie? Can they be vanilla? Can they have strawberry frosting? How about ice cream in the middle? Will I like any of these whoopie pies? I'm not a chocolate fan. I want the cupcake tasting assignment. Cupcake quarterly???
Thank to my taster testers for their reviews!!!! A few more tasters will be introduced next week (they were on vacation this week). We will be back in two weeks with another Whoopie Pie. (And yes, to answer a popular question, I am working on a schedule for Whoopie Pie Wednesday…it is actually one of my projects to do on my flight back to Wisconsin on Friday…but I think I might keep the schedule top secret. That might be more fun.)
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