Monday, October 17, 2022

The quintessential fall dessert

 

Photo from Hannaford Fresh

For one of our fall meet-ups with friends, Mr. T made a very special dessert: Gingerbread Whoopie Pies with a browned butter-maple filling.  He had found the recipe (as you will see if you click the link) in an older Hannaford Fresh magazine and was determined to try it. 

So he did!  One thing I found amusing about the recipe was that each part (cookie and filling) called for "16 tablespoons butter".  Oh, come on, recipe developers!  Why not just say "1 cup butter"?  The only reason I can think of is that they wanted it to sound like less butter than it really is.  

I've only browned butter a time or two in my baking/cooking life (and only small amounts at a time -- certainly not one cup!), and Mr. T never had.   He was a bit off in his calculations as to how brown it needed to be (it said the butter should smell nutty, and that took longer for him than it might for some).  So the butter was possibly a little browner than it should have been.  It didn't really detract from the flavor, but I think it may have overwhelmed the maple flavoring a bit.  So that's something to watch out for next time -- and, now that I think about it, a little stronger maple flavor wouldn't hurt either.

There will definitely be a next time; he's already saying "When I make these again...".  They are indeed very delicious and are the quintessential fall flavor.  I also love pumpkin whoopie pies, though.  Here is the link to the recipe my daughter Carrie uses: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Annie's Eats.  Wouldn't a platter featuring some of each be fun?

This Gingerbread Whoopie Pie recipe was supposed to make 12 whoopie pies, but as we looked it over we realized they were going to be huge.  Each one called for 3 tablespoons of batter.  So we decided to try making them with 1 to 1/2 tablespoons of batter.  This worked out perfectly and I think we got 26 whoopie pies out of the recipe.

We had plenty for our get-together on Columbus Day, and we took a container of them to our work project at The Wilds of New England, where Mr. T enjoyed sharing them at break time with his fellow volunteer workers.  

These whoopie pies are just a fabulous fall treat!  I hope you enjoy them if you happen to try the recipe.

2 comments:

  1. Ohhhh...they sound great! Sixteen tablespoons of butter...my! that's fussy. ☺️

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  2. Oh, that sure sounds good. I haven't had an honest to goodness whoopie pie in a LONG time! They aren't a "thing" here in Florida, I'm sad to say. I've had the pumpkin ones when we were visiting our kids in Maine. They were very good. I'm sure the gingerbread ones would be too. I love anything gingerbread. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Who stands there and counts out 16 tablespoons of butter? Yeah, just say a cup!! Or Two sticks!!! That's how I'd measure it. Sure sounds delicious. Thank you.

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