Homemade Whoopie Pies
Use this homemade whoopie pies recipe (with Marshmallow Fluff) for a classic take on an a favorite old-fashioned New England dessert.
By Yankee Magazine|Sep 27 2021|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanA classic homemade whoopie pie recipe for this favorite old-fashioned New England dessert. Soft chocolate cookies with Marshmallow Fluff cream filling never had it so good.
SEE MORE:
History of Whoopie Pies
75 Classic New England Foods
Yield:
8 servingsIngredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (or butter)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
Continue to mix on low speed while alternately adding the buttermilk and flour mixture. Stop to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Spoon about 1/4-cup of batter roughly 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets (a scoop works well here). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the person who asked for a recipe without the Fluff…you can Google for “whoopie pies without marshmallow Fluff” and you will find several alternatives. You can also make a butter/confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract frosting-type filling, or use vanilla ice cream and freeze the sandwiches, always delicious when eaten frozen. Hope this helps. Kids seem to love these no matter what’s in the filling, including peanut butter.
My Grandmother recipe tried and true is similar but not the same, bless her she is 98 yrs young.
I like to try variations to whoopie pies. These always seem to be yummy no matter what you do to it.
Please, however, make the print option print strictly the recipe. Leave out all the unnecessary clutter on the top, bottom and the right side. This could be made to print on one page NOT three. I don’t want or need to see the Unique Island Retreat ad, the lighthouse or “The History Place” John F. Kennedy Photo History on the third page – wasted ink!
Hi Yankee folks, I just made these and posted them on my web page “thewednesdaybaker.blogspot.com” and they are delicious. I think this is the same recipe that my mother used to use. If not very close. Love them. Can’t wait to make them again. Andi
Hi Andi! We’re so glad you made the recipe and that it was a success! Can’t wait to check out your post. 🙂
I made these today and they are perfection! Cake is moist and light, filling is “exactly” what should be inside a whoopie pie! I had only one problem with the recipe. I used an ice cream scoop and some of the cakes rose and stayed in nice round form but some of them (a few on each baking sheet) spread. What did I do wrong??
I thought the cake recipe was fine. The filling was a different matter. There is a much better fluff based filling from Martha Stewart. Use that recipe instead.
Hi Tina. We’re sorry you didn’t like the filling! It looks like the Martha Stewart recipe calls for butter instead of shortening, which will definitely still give you a tasty result. For this recipe we tried to recreate the version many of us know from childhood, but a butter Fluff filling, or even a batch of seven minute frosting, will still do the trick! Thanks for your comment.
Hi Christina! We’re so glad you liked the whoopie pie recipe! I’m pretty stumped about why some of your cakes spread while others rose on the same baking sheet. Since the cakes are kind of a cookie-cake hybrid, is it possible your pans needed to be rotated halfway through cooking — does your oven have a hot spot? Cookies can spread if the dough or batter is too warm when it goes in the oven, but if some are baking fine and some aren’t on the same baking sheet, I’m wondering if it’s the oven…
Perhaps, if you used butter, it could be the butter melting more and more as the dough sits out in the warm kitchen. Butter that is too softened in a cookie or whoopie pie recipe causes the product to spread and fail to maintain shape, becoming thinner and crunchier. I would recommend using shortening or chilling the dough in between scooping and baking.
Hi Cat – these are good tips, but I am still stumped as to why some of the cakes spread and some did not on the same baking sheet, since they were presumably all made with the same fat (butter or shortening), but you’re right that shortening has a higher melting point, making it more stable.
I can’t wait to make this recipie! I am doing 150 of them for a wedding plus a cake! What are your tips for making a larger size cake? I am stumped!
how can i make this filing for peanut butter?
Hi Penny. We currently do not have a peanut butter filling recipe for whoopie pies. Maybe a fellow reader will share one!
I have a peanut butter dip that i make into a peanut butter cream pie. I bet it would be delish in whoopie pies!! Its just cool whip mixed with peanut butter, a little cinnamon and if youre sticking it in a whoopie pie i would add some fluff!
You could copy and paste it on to word also and you won’t get all the other stuff.
Always use a cool baking sheet…I make these all the time, and use 2 baking sheets..
Nope…my recipe comes from cooking down east, by Marjorie Standish..never fail…and from Maine..
Hi Penney
I change it to 1/2 C shortening and 3/4 c Peanut Butter or more depending on personal tastes but I like mine light and fluffy.
I am so glad you said that !! I have come across many sights that are not printer friendly. I will come across something I am dying to try and I would have to print many pages to get what I want. Thanks for bringing that up !!!!
Hi there! I love this recipe! Question. My feeling tasted a little too much like shortening. Any suggestions?
Hi Krista. So glad you enjoyed the recipe! You can absolutely swap out the shortening for butter (in fact, I recommend it). The shortening is somewhat tradition and makes the cream filling very stable, but can leave your mouth feeling greasy. Butter has a richer flavor. 😉
Do you think you could use half shortening and half butter to combat the greasy feeling of using all shortening, and have it come out just as good?
Hi Melissa! That would be a good way to get the best of both — let us know how they turn out!
Meredith what I do is copy and paste it onto a word document and then I can cut out what I don’t want, and change the size of the font so that it fits onto one page. I also paste a picture on my recipe but I make it smaller so it’s not taking the whole page. Hope this helps.
My mother’s recipe doesn’t use fluff and it is a two step process where you first make a paste with flour and milk in a pan on the stove. I’ve never seen that recipe online. It’s so good!
I would live your recipe for stove top filling if you would be willing to pass it along. Thank you
Agree 100%!
Hi Krista,
A trick my Mom taught me when using shortening in a frosting in this case filling recipe is to add a little plain old white flour to the bowl when creaming the shortening and confectioner’s sugar. In the depression era for cost savings shortening was used to stretch a family’s budget as “butter” was for many a “special treat and/or reserved for toast, biscuits, warm rolls & bread.
In my opinion/experience the most recognized name brand comes in the blue can works best and not the butter flavored one either.
Hope this trick helps.
Hi Nicole. I have the recipe for fluffy white frosting posted on my blog The Wednesday Baker. Posted on 2.6.2012. Under cakes my mom always made the flour milk paste for most of her cakes. I love this frosting. Andi
My frosting is the easiest and not full of sugar. It’s easy and delicious…..1 16oz tub of Cool Whip…1/2 a box of White Chocolate instant pudding powder, 1tsp vanilla….sprinkle pudding a little at a time and whip on high. When cool whip turns to frosting you have your filling. If you like different flavors you can add a tsp of rasp jello powder and whip it in….or if you use a different flavor of pudding you can make many diff flavors…eg…pistachio is a killer for a white cake…lower in calories too..My whoopie pie recipe is similar but I use 1/2 stick of Imperial (melted) 3/4 cups sugar, 3/4 sour cream and 1/4 cup cocoa, 1 1/2 c flour, 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp baking soda, 1 egg, 1tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt.
I would like to know if I should use salted or unsalted butter. Thanks!
Hi Donna. Unsalted will work best. If you use salted butter, omit the 1/4 teaspoon of salt in the ingredients. Thanks!
Wow, kinda disappointing to read this … no “true” born and bred old time New Englander would make a whoopie pie with a Marshmallow Fluff filling. REAL New England whoopie pies have a cooked filling made in the top of a double boiler. It is light and fluffy, like fluff, but tastes soooo much better and is just … creamier. This is a FILLING, not a FROSTING … ladies, there is a difference. My 85 year old mother would be happy to tell you about it….
Sorry to say I was born and raised in Maine and we always used Fluff. Recipe is from my husband’s grandmother also born and raised on coast of Maine. It is the real thing we are now in our 60’s. Once fluff came out it was used. Apparently only in Maine so should be called a Downeast Recipe instead.
Hi Ann I agree as I grew up with the filling you speak of. It has been so long I forgot about that. I have not made them in years as my mother never passed on her recipes. If you have this filling recipe I would absolutely love to have it. Thank you for bringing back some fond memories.
Born and bred in Connecticut. My mother couldn’t cook, but my Aunt Rose could. Now SHE could make a whoopie pie. And She used fluff.
If you move the cursor over the areas you want to remove, it allows you to click and delete whatever you want to remove…
…Before you click for the final print, obviously…it “highlights” the area to be deleted…
;-D
And your point being? Everyone has their own taste rather it being a frosting or filling.
Exactly! Does it REALLY matter? Food is food, to be enjoyed, no matter where it originated.
I use wonder flour and milk, but cooking in microwave it doesn’t burn on. Stir occasionally as it thickens. Let cool and cover with saran wrap putting it in fridge. I do 1 cup of milk and 5 tablespoons of flour
Make your whoppie pies and when you’re done baking you can finish the filling. Beat crisco, sugar and flour mixture and vanilla, making sure there is no lumps. I let add marshmalow and beat to mix it all. Batter should be stiff. Chill and it will stiffen up. Cisco is 1 cup, sugar is 1 c u p, vanilla is 2 teaspoons and marshmallow is 1 cup. Enjoy
Do you mean powdered sugar or just granulated?? I just made my boyfriends moms recipe from when he was a kid and it was similar to whAt you wrote. Except it said granulated sugar in filling and he said it didn’t taste right. Just wondering if his sister gave me recipe wrong
I use that recipe with granulated sugar. Just add the cooled flour mixture to the Crisco, sugar and vanilla and beat until the consistency of whipped cream.
We all know “whoopie pie” is a Pennsylvania Amish creation and threat, but it is OK for New England folks to enjoy them.
That’s completely false, they are a Maine creation, Pennsylvania LOL, that’s precious!
I agree. Maine is notorious for ’Whoopie Pies’. They’re easy to find in stores. Visit and see Maine’s Whoopie Pies! Enjoy it for dessert after a Maine lobstah!
Looking through the historical literature, it appears the true progenitors of whoopie pies are in fact the Amish. They brought the treat with them to places they settled: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts and Maine. Mainers, however, seem to have written the Amish out of the history of the treat completely, whereas the Pennsylvanians and Ohioans still call them an Amish treat. The man who accomplished this feat? The same man who invented marshmallow fluff.
Love fluff
I am from Boston however now a Fl. transplant…My MOM made the best whoopie pies cause her filling was cool whip and it was great..Years later I made them with real whip cream and my children loved them…We sometimes would add black forest cherries…omg I want one ..NOW !!!
Good Morning! Great recipe. Ive made this a number of times. Perfect as it is written. My niece and I am making these today for her birthday. I make a raspberry powder during raspberry season. I sift all the seeds out and it makes a fantastic natural dye and a beautiful raspberry flavor. Ill add a few tablespoons to the filling im a native Mainer and i pride myself in being able to make a great whoopie pie. Thanks 🙂
Hi Dave, how do you make the raspberry powder? My husband loves anything Raspberry but I do not like the seeds ~ this sounds like a great compromise. Hope you are willing to share! Thank you, Peggy
Peggy, you can purchase freeze dried raspberries at Trader Joe’s. Put them in a mini prep food processor & pulse them into powder. Then sift out the seeds. Voila, raspberry powder!
The whoopies pictured are pretty anemic from the dark, devils-food-like cake on the whoopie pies that I look forward to on every trip to Maine.
I thought so, too
I am in my mid 60’s I grew up in Patten and E Millinocket. My mom was a great baker and she made whoopie pies. She did not use fluff (and I LOVE FLUFF). If you have ever made a 7 min boiled frosting it is almost that texture only thicker. So I think that the person who said it was made in a double boiler(who now a days know what that is) with the milk and flower along with the butter or Crisco, sugar and vanilla, was probably right.But with food every area and even every country have their own version of different dishes. Bon Appetite!
Oui may mother did the same which is how to make marshmallow from egg whites and sugar..fabulous..
Take heart. A few of us young’uns know what a double boiler is. I use it to melt chocolate ????
I love this recipe. I actually have used the filling in place of frosting in other recipes. I am not a big fan of bakery frosting and this keeps a lot better. This is how my mom made Whoopie pies and they are a regular request in my house. A few things that I do to tweak the cake part though. I add a 1 tsp of baking powder, I use butter instead of shortening . I always just make a milk(whatever I have on hand) and vinegar mixture. Honestly I just have no other use for shortening or butter so I don’t stock them in my kitchen. Sifting the ingredients is very important. I just use a 1.5 Tb cookie scoop and they take about 8-9 minutes in the oven.
Does anyone know of variations of the chocolate whoopie pie? We have gotten a few of the traditional “pies” for our grandson from our local Amish baker …. but I’m thinking what about a gingerbread whoopie pie with lemon flavored Fluf filling or an almond cake “pie” with raspberry flavored Fluff filling.
We enjoy pumpkin with a cream cheese filling, or banana, chocolate chip, red velvet, all with traditional filling. In my neck of the woods, Western Pennsylvania, we call them “gobs”
Pumpkin Whoopie pies are my favorite!
In southern NH, on the MA border, we grew up calling these black moons. They were a darker chocolate than shown in this picture, and my mother did not use fluff to fill them. She used a recipe called “fluffy frosting” in which you cooked a paste with flour and milk, then creamed in 50-50 mix of butter and shortening, then adding sugar and vanilla. It came out similar to the creme fillings in many store-bought snack cakes.
I remember making that filling in Home Ec in Middle School @ 1967 I might even have the original recipe stashed away somewhere!
Yes! That’s the filling my mom used also..no fluff at all..and I grew up in Massachusetts..it was yummmmieee!
Yes, that’s the filling my mom made, and I make. As much as I like Fluff in a Fluffernutter, it can not compare as a whoopie pie filling!
That would be cooked-flour or ermine frosting. The best!
I beg to differ. Fluff is NOT required and not even desired to my tastes and memories of my Mom’s recipe. And your magazine offers three different recipes.
My mom born and raised in southern nh made whoopie pies since I can remember. I am now 68 and she always used marshmallow fluff. Wonderful and the only way I would make them. By the way she also used a cooked frosting but never in these. She has passed now 2 yrs at 90 .I also use the fluff in frosting for a wacky cake.
Just had to say I LOVE the passion everyone has for their fond memories of the “correct” way to make Whoppie Pies.
They make seedless raspberry jam for making the raspberry filling
Paul N Oct 3 2021