Letters From Away: Whoopie for whoopie pies, that great New England treat

I’m in a whoopie pie-induced buzz just now! And I LIKE it!

Two things contributed to this feeling:

1) I just found out that the Trader Joe’s nearby sells what it calls Whoopee Pies – and they are nearly as good as Mom made;

2) I just stumbled across http://www.whoopiepie.org/, which includes historical information, recipes, and even video!

Whoopieeeeeeeee!

For those of you who have never had a whoopie pie, I am sorry. Sooo, very sorry, because whoopie pies are wicked good. You missed out on a deliciously sweet treat – usually two soft, cake-like cookies with a creamy white filling. Yes, a sugar rush of the grandest kind.

Of course, there are variations on the combination. I’ve had whoopie pies with pumpkin cookies, oatmeal cookies, and even chocolate chip cookies. And the fillings can be peanut butter or maple, too.

The Trader Joe’s Whoopee Pies were the basic chocolate cookies and white filling.

Whoopie pies are most definitely a Maine and New England tradition, and there’s even a small whoopie pie industry thriving in New England. Small bakeries ship whoopie pies all over.

This is from www.whoopiepie.org/:

Whoopie pies are considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. They're one of Maine's best known and favorite comfort foods. People living in Maine often claim that they were weaned on whoopie pies. These treats are more like a cake than a pie, as they are generously sized to be about the side of a hamburger patty. To eat a whoopie pie properly, you need a glass of milk.

A whoopie pie is like a sandwich, but made with two soft cookies with a fluffy white filling. Traditional whoopies pies are made with vegetable shortening, not butter. The original and most commonly made whoopie pie is chocolate. but cooks like to experiment, and today pumpkin whoopie pies are a favorite seasonal variation.

The Pennsylvania Amish get credit for developing the dessert, but I don’t know about that. It will always be a Maine delight to me. The whoopie pie history on http://www.whoopiepie.org/ indicates that the treat was made with leftover batter and that the Amish children would yell “Whoopie!” when they found the dessert in their school lunches.

I pretty much did the same thing in past years when my family has shipped whoopie pies for Christmas.

So, I had to take some of Trader Joe’s Whoopee Pies home yesterday and give them a taste test. Frankly, I seriously thought I would be disappointed, but I was not. The cookie was moist and fudgy and the filling sweet. I can confidently endorse Trader Joe’s Whoopee Pies as being, well, very close to the real thing.

As the photos prove, I finished off one. The photos do not show that I also finished off a second whoopie pie.

The website warns that eating whoopie pies requires a tall glass of milk. In most cases that is true. But red wine also works.