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Recipe Detail Page
Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Cream
Spring 2011
We used a piping bag to make neat circles of batter—if you find it tricky, use a spoon to measure out the batter instead. The Salted Caramel will keep for three weeks refrigerated.Thin down any extra to use as a sauce over ice cream or scoop little caramels out of it. The Whoopie Pie recipe is adapted from one by Claudia Eggers, owner of Frangipane Bakery in Toronto, who made them for an event last year. Sometimes I make large pies and cut them into slices for serving as a small confection after dinner. Both the pies and the salted caramel filling freeze very well so having more is not a chore.
Makes about 16 whoopie pies
PIES
2 oz (60 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
⅓ cup (75 mL) cocoa powder
Scant 1 cup (250 mL) boiling water
1½ cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour
¾ tsp (4 mL) baking soda
Pinch baking powder
¼ tsp (1 mL) kosher salt
½ cup (125 mL) granulated sugar
½ cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar
⅔ cup (150 mL) full-fat mayonnaise
1 large egg
½ tsp (2 mL) vanilla extract
SALTED CARAMEL CREAM
¾ cup (175 mL) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups (1 L) icing sugar, sifted
⅔ cup (150 mL) Salted Caramel (recipe follows)
Fleur de sel
GARNISH
Pink sea salt
1 Combine chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Add boiling water and mix until smooth. Set aside.
2 Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3 Combine white sugar, brown sugar and mayonnaise in a stand mixer and blend until smooth. Add egg and beat well. Beat in vanilla. Add half of fl our mixture, blend in and add half of chocolate mixture. Continue alternating flour and chocolate, blending well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Chill for 2 to 3 hours or until mixture has firmed up slightly.
4 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
5 Using a large piping bag fitted with a plain round tip, pipe mounds of batter between
1½ to 2 inches (4 to 5 cm) in diameter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool. Repeat until you have used up all the batter.
6 Combine butter and icing sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and
blend until smooth. Slowly add salted caramel and mix until well blended. Chill until ready to use. If it hardens too much to spread, let it warm up slowly at room temperature.
7 Spread 1 chocolate disc with a generous layer of Salted Caramel filling and a sprinkle of fleur de sel. Top with another chocolate disc to make a sandwich. Repeat with remaining chocolate discs and filling. Garnish with a tiny sprinkling of pink sea salt.
Makes about 16 whoopie pies
SALTED CARAMEL
Always remember that boiling sugar syrup can cause bad burns so use oven gloves and caution when making caramel. You can use fleur de sel or Maldon salt for this. Leftovers make great caramels.
¼ cup (50 mL) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup (125 mL) whipping cream
1 tsp (5 mL) fleur de sel
3 tbsp (45 mL) water
2 tbsp (25 mL) corn syrup
1 cup (250 mL) granulated sugar
1 Combine butter, cream and fleur de sel in a pot over medium heat and cook together until butter is melted. Set aside.
2 Combine water, corn syrup and sugar in a heavy pot over medium heat and stir until sugar liquefies. Let simmer for 6 to 7 minutes or until it turns a light caramel brown.Remove from heat, add cream mixture and let it bubble until uniform. Carefully transfer to a bowl to cool.
Makes about 1¼ cups (300 mL)
