Dark Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Rainbow Toasted Almond Cream

Prior to this bake, I had never tasted a whoopie pie before. Seeing all these Betty Crocker Whoopie pies mix displaying at the supermarket shelves, I have been influenced to bake these Whoopie pies. And, this is the reason why I am suggesting "Whoopie pie" to Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings for this bake-along.

It seems to me that Whoopie pies has been a trendy thing to bake and eat in these recent years.  I wonder how and why the Whoopie pies trend started and surprised to see that a few highly-rated baking books that contain Whoopie pies recipes only. Assuming that Whoopie pie is an all-time American favourite, I tried to seek for an ultimate and authentic recipe within all my American-based cookbooks and was surprised that I couldn't find any... All that I gathered are many versions of Whoopie pies recipes from my food magazines and internet. Looking at the recipes in details, I found that all the Whoopie pies recipes that I have seen seems so different. Some are cakey while some are more biscuits-like. Some are light while some are buttery or creamy. Or some are as simple as being soft cookies sandwiches...

In fact, several magazines that I read say that some basic cake recipes in their tablespoonful sizes can be used to bake Whoopie pies. Interestingly, Jamie Oliver made his Whoopie pies by using the same cake batter from his chocolate boozy cake (the one that I baked for my Cook Like a Star event) and said that it works well for him.

Nevertheless, amongst all Whoopie pie recipes, I was deeply attracted to two specific recipes. One is classic Whoopie pies from a highly rated Whoopie pie specialised book, Whoopie Pies : Dozens of Mix 'em, Match 'em, Eat 'em Up Recipes by Sarah Billingsley and the second one is from from Food Network by Alex Guarnaschelli. After my serious consideration, a health-freak me have decided not to bake the first one because it uses vegetable shortening in both its pie rounds and fillings. Unlike most recipes, the second recipe doesn't use any marshmallow filling. Instead, this milk-based filling reminds me a lot of the pastry cream that I made for my classic fruit tart. This filling uses no butter or shortening and doesn't contain as much sugar as most typical marshmallow filling. Having more flour in this recipe, this almond infused filling is slightly thicker than the fruit tart one and hold its shape and both pie rounds very well.

To add a cheerful look to my whoopie pies, I have coloured my pie filling into rainbow colours. To be able to "feel-good" eating my pies, I have used natural colourings to create my rainbow colours - except blue because blue doesn't exist naturally - LOL!

I do feel-good baking and eating these rainbow Whoopie pies and I reckon the best thing of this bake is to see the "true colours" of my husband and son enjoying these pies. These pies have great cakey texture with nice chocolaty-brownie taste. Not too sweet and not too creamy, yet moist and satisfying with every single bite.

Now, I know why Whoopie pies is such a trendy thing to bake...

My Dark Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Rainbow Toasted Almond Cream

Here's my source of inspiration - a view from my kitchen window.

Making the chocolate rounds

Baking... It's like magic!

Making the almond infused filling

The filling absorbed the colour of the toasted almonds.

Colouring the filling

The ultimate finale - eating the pie with a drizzle of my chocolate sauce!

Here's the recipe from Food Network by Alex Guarnaschelli
(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients

The whoopie pies:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped 

(I used cooking chocolate with 70% cocoa)
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips  

(I used chocolate chips with 45% cocoa)
1 stick (or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon (I chose not add this)

Zest from 1/2 lemon (I chose not add this)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Make the pies: In a medium heatproof bowl, combine the unsweetened chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and butter. Fill a pot (relatively the same size as the bowl) about 1/3 full with water and place it over medium heat. When the water simmers, place the bowl of chocolate and butter over the simmering water and lower the heat. You want to melt the chocolate and butter gently together, stirring and scraping the sides (to avoid scorching).

Preheat oven to 375 °F (or 180°C fan forced)

In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and lemon zest (I didn't add cinnamon and lemon zest). Set aside.

Separately, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

When the chocolate and butter is melted, remove the bowl from the heat; stir to assure it's completely mixed and transfer to another medium bowl. This will accelerate cooling. Allow the chocolate to cool a few minutes. Whisk in the egg mixture. Whisk in the flour mixture. Only whisk until blended, over-mixing can affect the texture of the pies.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray (alternatively, use a piece of fitted parchment sprayed with nonstick spray). Drop the batter in large spoonfuls (keeping the shapes as round as possible) on the baking sheet. You are aiming for rounds that are about 2 inches in diameter. Take care to leave some room (about 2 inches) between each one to allow for spreading that will occur as they bake.

Place the tray in the hot oven and bake for 6 to 8 min. Check the pies. Leave in the oven an additional min or two if they seem under baked. The dough will lose some of its shiney-ness and no longer look wet but will still feel soft. Remove the tray from the oven and allow them to cool for about 5 to 10 min before gingerly lifting them off the baking sheet and onto a flat surface

Note: Using 2/3 of the above recipe, I have baked 19 chocolate rounds at 180°C fan forced for 10 min and this amount is enough to yield 9 Whoopie pies. 

The filling:

1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted

(I used flake almond, toasted at 170°C fan forced for 6-7 min)

1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp pure almond extract (I didn't use this)

1/2 cup melted chocolate, for drizzling or dunking, optional

Directions

Make the filling: In a medium saucepan, heat the milk to a simmer and add about 3/4 of the cup (I used all) of the toasted almonds. Reserve the remaining almonds. Shut off the heat and allow the almonds to "steep" in the milk, for 10 to 15 min. Strain the milk and pour it back into the same pan, discarding the almonds from the milk

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together the sugar, flour, cornstarch and egg yolks until thick and smooth, 3 to 4 min.

Pour some of the hot milk mixture over the eggs and whisk to blend. Pour the egg mixture back into the milk; turn on a low to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 8 min. Stir in the almond extract (I didn't use this).

Continue to cook for an additional 1 to 2 min, stirring to make sure it doesn't cling to the bottom of the pan and burn, until very thick. Pour the cream into a clean bowl. Stir in the remaining almonds (I didn't do this to get a smoother consistency). Cover tightly with a layer of plastic so the cream doesn't form a skin. Allow to cool.

Assemble: "Sandwich" some of the cream in between two of the chocolate rounds. Drizzle with melted chocolate, if desired.

Note: Using 2/3 of the above recipe (without adding almonds into the cream), I have made enough filling to fill only 7 whoopie pies. To make rainbow, I have coloured the filling into six different colours, yellow, orange, pink, blue, green and purple. All the colourings except the blue colour that I used are from natural extract. The blue colourings that I used is a colouring gel from Wilton.

Last but not least, this is my final touch: drizzling my whoopie pies with my chocolate sauce.

Happy Baking
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