Whoopies

Whoopies (Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.), pg. 142.

I had never made whoopie pies before but last week I made some from two different recipes. The other recipe was the one from King Arthur Flour and it uses shortening instead of butter. Both of them turned out well and there wasn't much difference between the two. I gave some of both to my neighbor John who was having a birthday. He and his wife thought that the King Arthur recipe was the best (although they loved both). Michael, on the other hand, liked Maida's better.  

Maida's recipe filling seemed a bit complicated (the King Arthur recipe is much simpler) but I didn't encounter any difficulties by following the recipe exactly. Both fillings are heavy and I wondered how a lighter filling (something similar to Cool Whip) might work.

Regardless, these are quite a delicious treat.

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 /2 cup plus 1 TBS. unsweetened cocoa
1 cup plus 2 TBS. milk

Preheat the oven to 375. Fit cookie sheets with foil or a baking mat. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar and mix well.

 

Add the eggs one at at time, scraping the bowl as necessary.

 

Add the cocoa.

 

Add the sifted flour alternately with the milk.

 

Use a 1/4 cup scoop to form the dough. Shape each mound as round as possible. Place the mounds about 4 inches apart on the baking sheets.

 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done.

Remove from the oven - slide the foil off the baking sheet and let them stand for a few minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. You should have 27 large cookies to make 13 whoopies.

 

Creamy White Filling

1/3 cup plus 3 TBS. sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 lb. (3 sticks) butter
Generous pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups strained confectioners sugar

Place the flour in a 1-quart saucepan. Add the milk gradually, stirring with a rubber spatula. 

 

Cook over moderate heat, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the mixture starts to bubble. Simmer for about 2 minutes.

Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and set aside to cool to room temperature. Stir ocassionally with a whisk. (The mixture will resemble mashed potatoes.)

Beat the remaining butter until softened. Add the vanilla, salt and sugar gradually. Beat for 2 minutes. Gradually add the cooled flour and milk mixture one tablespoon at a time, then beat on high speed 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.

Place a generous tablespoon (or more) of the filling in the center of each cookie. Spread and cover with a second cookie.

Granny's Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

 

Granny's Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies  (Source: Maida Heatter's Cookies (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.), pg. 63.

Another holiday season, another sugar cookie recipe. These cookies are very good with an nice lemon flavor. However, I found the dough hard to work with - very sticky and requires a lot of flour to keep it manageable.  A few years ago, I made the Plain Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies and I recall that the dough was easier to work with. Still, these are quite delicious and they last a long time if kept airtight.

1 3/4 sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 oz. unsalted butter
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
1 TBS. lemon juice
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 TBS. whipping cream

Cinnamon Sugar

1 TBS. granulated sugar
1/3 tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter until soft.

 

Beat in the lemon rind, juice and sugar.

 

Beat in the eggs and the whipping cream.

 

Add the flour mixture until smooth.

 

Turn the dough out onto wax paper or plastic wrap. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

 

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil.

Cut the dough into thirds. Roll out the dough until thin (about 1/8 inch). If the dough is cold, pound it to soften up slightly. 

 

Cut out the cookies with a cookie cutter (about 3") and place them on the baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart. 

 

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the cookies.

 

Bake for 10-13 minutes. The cookies are done when they are sandy-colored and dark around the rims. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Abby Mandel's Boule de Neige (Snowball)

 

Abby Mandel's Boule de Neige (Snowball) (Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.), pg. 201.

For New Year's Day, I wanted to make my favorite type of dessert - something chocolate-y, maybe gooey, rich, decadent. I was about to settle on a cheesecake when I came across this recipe. Jackpot! I don't want to over-do the gushing but oh my word, this thing is divine!

This is in Maida's chocolate book and it is attributed to Abby Mandel, a chef and cookbook writer who I was unfamiliar with. She helped found the Green City Market in Chicago and wrote a book in 1982 with Cuisinart recipes that is apparently still well admired, judging by the reviews I was reading.  

Speaking of the food processor, Maida gives an aside to this recipe and describes how Mandel put it all together in less than a minute. So I opted to try it Mandel's way and it is indeed very fast and easy. The description here is the Mandel method. Maida's involves doing it in a mixing bowl, similar to the way she does most recipes.

How to describe this? Well, I would say it falls somewhere between a cheesecake and a mousse. It is very creamy and rich with a distinct coffee flavor (I might reduce the coffee granules next time but not by much). A little piece goes a long way...

Unfortunately it doesn't serve up that pretty. It is very delicate and I finally resorted to using a cake lifter to get it on a plate in one piece. You can see the photo at the bottom of the page.

A note about the bowl to use - at first I thought I wasn't going to be able to make this because I had a hard time locating one. You need a mixing bowl with a 6-8 cup capacity. A deeper, more dome-shaped bowl would be idea but I did not have one. The bowl can be glass or metal but does need to be ovenproof. I ended up using a glass bowl. 

One more bit of advice - after making the topping, you might think that there isn't going to be enough to cover the cake. I certainly thought so but turns out there is plenty. So as you are piping, don't be afraid to pipe the rosettes right next to each other to avoid gaps.

 

8 oz. semisweet chocolate (in small pieces)
2 tsp. dry instant coffee
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) sweet butter (room temperature, cut into small pieces)
4 large eggs
1 TBS. Cognac or dark rum

Line an oven-proof mixing bowl (glass, metal or pottery) with foil. Set aside.
(See note above about bowl size.)

 

Place the chocolate, instant coffee and sugar in a food processor bowl.
Pulse until finely chopped.

With the processor running, add the boiling water through the feeder tube.
Process until the chocolate is melted.

Add the butter until blended.

Add the eggs.

Add the rum or Cognac. Process about 15 seconds.

Pour into the foil-lined bowl.

Bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees. When done, the top will be puffy and cracked.

Let the bowl stand at room temperature until the cake has cooled. The cake will shrink as it cools, especially in the center. To help level it, place a piece of wax paper over the cake, touching it, and gently press down. Do this several times as the cake is cooling. After the cake has cooled, remove the wax paper and wrap the bowl in plastic wrap. Refrigerate (or freeze).

The next day, remove from the refrigerator and invert onto a serving plate.

Carefully peel off the foil.

Return to the refrigerator until you are ready to apply the topping.

Whipped Cream Topping

1 cup heavy cream
2 TBS. granulated sugar
2 tsp. Cognac or dark rum

Whip the cream in a chilled bowl with chilled beaters until it holds a shape.

Add the sugar and the Cognac or rum and continue to whip until it holds a shape but not too stiff.

Transfer the cream to a pastry bag with a star tip. Cover the cake with rosettes of the whipped cream. (Hint: Place your rosettes so that they are touching each other - closer than what I did. It will look as though you do not have enough cream but there should be plenty.)

Return to the refrigerator.