Forget Cupcakes: Whoopie Pies Are Gonna Be Big
While in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this weekend, whoopie pie flavor exploration became the number-one priority. The Central Market downtown was the best playground, where four flavors sat behind a glass counter: red velvet with white cream filling, chocolate with peanut butter filling, pumpkin with buttercream filling and chocolate chip cookies (harder texture, not puffy like the others) with white cream filling. After asking the aproned woman which was most "authentic," she paused.
"Well, pumpkin is probably most popular." (Sidenote: pumpkin outside of autumn is awesome). "But chocolate chip is probably most authentic."
Really? Chocolate chip? Would the Pennsylvania Dutch agree? Isn't chocolate cake with white creamy innards the most iconic whoopie pie flavor? Food Network seems to agree (Emeril's black-and-white version is the only one listed online). But is that so in Whoopie Country, Pennsylvania? At Lancaster's Bird-in-Hand Bakery, they carry black-and-whites, but in addition to pumpkin and chocolate-with-peanut butter. All three have been on the menu since the bakery opened forty years ago, and in 2000, red velvet entered the scene.
Why all the flavor flexibility? Bird-in-Hand baker Laura Boepple thinks the Broadway production Plain and Fancy was a major catalyst, inspiring curious tourists to make Lancaster roadtrips for Amish educations. And with that came inevitable whoopie pie exposure too. More tourists, more business, more flavor ideas generating. For St. Pat's Day last month, Bird-in-Hand featured a chocolate cake with mint filling and in this Chowhound thread, a maple whoopie was spotted at a Vermont bakery.
Are whoopie pies the next cupcakes, with flavors leaving black-and-white vision? Will they grow as imaginative as bubblegum and chai latte? How does this make the Pennsylvania Dutch feel?
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22 Comments:
Boy, does this bring back memories! I used to eat these when we would go to Lancaster years ago on day trips with my family. (This was before it became one big retail outlet). I only used to eat the basic chocolate version but even if they had come in other flavors back then it wouldn't have made a difference. If whoopie pies make it into the mainstream I'll guarantee you they won't be as good as the authentic ones sold in the Pennsylvania Dutch markets.
RichardCrystal at 11:49AM on 03/27/08
Where can we find these in New York? I know you can get big homemade Oreos that aren't too crispy at Westville.
NYC Food Guy at 11:57AM on 03/27/08
@ RichardCrystal: How's this for making it into the mainstream? Oreo Cakesters = wannabe whoopie pies? Spotted them at the grocery store just this week, and thought, hm, more whoopie pie globalization. They are sorta taking over the world?
Erin Zimmer at 12:31PM on 03/27/08
Serious Eats alert--if you are near or around Tribeca, Columbine, the sandwich shop makes a KILLER Whoopie Pie. It's a special dessert (they have a specials page on their site... whenever it's on, I go. And I'm in the Financial District. It's that good.
I asked them the last time (because I checked everyday in 07) why they hadn't made it.. They said it's seasonal--in winter they do it once a month.
So I've been going once a month, buying up a bunch and spreading it around at work. Fair warning--it's not as good the next day. Best consumed immediately..
dbdtron
dbdtron at 1:12PM on 03/27/08
@Erin.....You just HAD to tell me that!! Yipppeeeee!!!!
RichardCrystal at 1:40PM on 03/27/08
I made whoopie pies only once and they took a lot of time, but boy were they delish! Chocolate are my fav!
Jane M at 1:58PM on 03/27/08
I love Whoopie pies and have made them...Chocolate Kahlua pies with Vanilla Marscapone Cheese filling. DIVINE. I'm looking forward to making them again, with slightly different flavors!
http://sseichinger.blogspot.com/2007/05/makin-whoopie.html
scotte at 3:33PM on 03/27/08
i'm from PA dutch country but live in brooklyn now. when i want whoopie pies in NYC, i go to the greenmarket and look for the people, sometimes but not always Amish, selling pies and cookies. they usually have whoopie pies, depending on the season (not in summer, usually.)
migmigmig at 5:39PM on 03/27/08
See! Chocolate Kahlua with mascarpone? This is crazy, yet beautiful. So many non-traditional whoopie pie flavors cropping up.
Erin Zimmer at 5:46PM on 03/27/08
How about: Whoopie Pie Cushions!
srhcb at 8:43PM on 03/27/08
The key to good whoopie is buttermilk and veg shortening. That's right.
I love love love Cental Market. I only go there from Spring to Fall though.
All over Lancaster County one can whoopie with abandon.
Sounds like a Daring bakers challenge. Whoopie day.
Someone poke at Peabody or Tartlette and whisper in their ear. I think would be great.
JerzeeTomato at 9:42PM on 03/27/08
All the information I ever had was that Whoopie Pies (or the same thing with a different name) was prevalent up in the Northeast - like Vermont. Someone up there does a big "mail order" business with them. Of course saw it on FN on Road Tasted or some such. So...anybody around northern VA have any?
nrwfos at 1:38AM on 03/28/08
My family is from Western PA, always called them gobs, not whoopie pies. I managed to get my aunt's recipe a couple of years ago, but mine just aren't as good as hers.
Nrwfos, in Northern VA, not a clue, but the Burtonsville, MD Amish market should have some. Or go down into St. Mary's Co some Saturday, and I know you'll find pumpkin and chocolate chip ones at the farmer's market beside the library.
MerMade07 at 8:40AM on 03/28/08
From what I've read, gobs have a cooked filling whereas whoopies have the gooey icing. On the phone, the Bird-in-Hand baker mentioned that people always come into the shop asking for gobs, but she never knows what that is. At first I thought it was a shibboleth issue, but maybe they are different. Anyone know?
Erin Zimmer at 10:40AM on 03/28/08
Mmmm... gotta love a good whoopie pie. I haven't had one since leaving my home territory of Lancaster, PA and moving to MD after college. Although since I went to college in MD I did make whoopie pies as a "cultural snack" for my anthropology class. When I mentioned to my friends that my boyfriend and I were going to make whoopie pies that evening they thought I was talking about something else :). Now I'm going to need to take a day trip up to Central Market (which is filled with a lot of other wonderful food, by the way) and get a whoopie pie - or maybe see if I can find my mom's recipe.
abbysnail at 12:10PM on 03/28/08
You should try to explain to a Nebraskan what a whoopie pie is!! And they call themselves Germans............lol
humblegrams2 at 3:47PM on 03/28/08
bouchon bakery makes a mean whoopie pie.
cybercita at 10:52AM on 03/30/08
I love whoopie pies! I've made chocolate with white filling, chocolate with peanut butter filling, yellow with whie filling, and pumpkin with white filling. But I haven't been able to find a recipe for the chocolate chip whoopie pie.
My favorite filling is the white filling (made with Fluff).
Does anybody know of a recipe for the chocolate chip whoopie pie cakes?
kleinap at 3:02PM on 03/31/08
i went to bouchon bakery after i wrote about them making good whoopie pies and they didn't have any...
cybercita at 11:23PM on 03/31/08
For the record, Oreo Cakesters are delicious, whoopie pie phoney or not. Tried them last night and ate both in the pack.
Erin Zimmer at 1:13PM on 04/02/08
Was so inspired by the whoopie pie hubub I made my own batch last weekend. Chocolate with chocolate chip cream cheese filling. Check the recipe out here:
http://readkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/04/makin-whoopie.html
lesliepariseau at 1:40PM on 04/03/08
I used to eat one of these every sunday morning at 10:00!!
Now i'm cutting down. One every 1/2 year to 2 years.
(BACON BOY APPROVED)
I_heart_here_BACON at 6:44PM on 02/03/09