Strawberry Whoopie pies!

A Sunday Funday of baking in the kitchen! After church this morning, followed by my weekly trip to the grocery store & cooking a nice lunch, I had a few hours of down time to bake in the kitchen.  Now, I'm not going to portray like I'm an expert when it comes to baking because quite frankly, it's one of the tasks in the kitchen I have to work hard at to become even 'decent' when cooking from scratch.  I wish I was a natural born baker, but I'm more of a dinner-chic, so what can I say? My mother always told me practice-makes-perfect, so that's why one of my 2013 New Year Resolutions is to bake at least 3 times per month a recipe from scratch.  This Strawberry Whoopie Pie recipe is the second recipe of the new year I've baked and it's quite a delectable little sweet treat!  Something about 'sweets' just make me exude with joy and this one is no exception!

Happy Cooking xx
Colleen

Strawberry Whoopie Pies
  

Make the shells: 
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 tbsp. white vegetable shortening

3/4 cup powdered strawberry milk mix - such as Nesquick brand.

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 whole egg

1 egg white

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp white vinegar

Whoopie Baking Pan

Kitchen mixer 

Directions on making the shells:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder, set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine vegetable shortening, strawberry milk powder and brown sugar.  Mix until crumbly.

4. Add the egg and egg white, to the mixture and beat well, then add the heavy cream; mix until smooth.

5. In a small condiment cup, combine milk, baking soda and vinegar. Stir well, mixture will foam.

6. Pour baking soda mixture into the batter first and then pour flour mixture in on top.  Mix on low speed until thick and combined.  Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and mix again until well combined.

7. Transfer mixture to a piping bag or a large zip-top sandwich bag with the corner snipped off.

8.  Pipe batter into heaped 2" rounds widely spaced on the baking whoopie pan. Dab finger/spoon to flatten out batter.

9. Bake for 7-10 minutes.  Be careful not to over bake.  Cakes are done when they just start to turn golden around the edges. Transfer from pan to parchment paper and allow to cool for 15 minutes. 

10. Flip over every other row of whoopie pies.  Golden brown side will be flipped up (this is the side you put the icing on *not shown in photograph above*). 

Fill the shells:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract.

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
2. Beat on low speed until just combined, then whip at high speed until light and fluffy.

3.  Transfer icing-whip into piping bag fitted with piping tip. Decorate shells & fill inside. 

Eat & enjoy the small pleasures of life! xx :)