Authentic Maine Whoopie Pies

Ayuh, we’re getting wicked nostalgic today- or at least I am. I grew up in New England, and spent the majority of my childhood years in Maine. Maine is famous for so many amazing things- its rocky coastline, lobster everything, gorgeous lighthouses, and… whoopie pies. If you don’t know what a whoopie pie is, I’m sorry and I’m here to help. If you do know, you’ve possibly spent time online looking for a good recipe to make them like you remember, and you haven’t been able to find one. Chocolate cake mix with marshmallow or cake frosting in the middle is NOT a whoopie pie. If you want a recipe that is actually wicked good, rejoice- because it’s right heah.

I grew up saying everything was ‘wicked’. Wicked cool, wicked bad, wicked cold. It gets wicked cold and wicked snowy. Living in the Pacific Northwest, it’s something I really miss- an authentic winter season. I’m always excited to make something that will take me back there in one way or another! Whoopie pies were everywhere from the counter basket at the Cumberland Farms register to Wicked Whoopies in Freeport: a store dedicated solely to this confection. (Wicked Whoopies is still thriving and if you ever go to Freeport, you should visit in person!) Years ago, I got a terrible craving for them and fired up my trusty internet machine to pull a recipe so that I could make a couple at our current duty station in Virginia.

Friends, I tell you, I was horrified by what I found. The recipes were, well… wicked bad. Or if not bad, wrong. People using cake mix, or brownie mix, or who knows what else to make the chocolate shells. Even worse, putting normal cake frosting or, sigh, straight Fluff in between the shells. Look, I grew up on Fluffernutters (if you haven’t heard of a Fluffernutter, which is a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich, today is the first day of the rest of your life!) but a whoopie pie is not full of Fluff. With just a little effort and a couple ingredients, you can get it all just how it should be. It’s easy to put together- my two little girls make these with me all the time. And, yep, they are wicked good.

I’ve been dragging this recipe with me, all over the country, for years. It’s changed a little bit here and there and now I have it exactly where I want it. There’s a few things I want to make sure you notice before you start, though!

• This recipe calls for a significant amount of vanilla extract. Only 1 teaspoon in the shell recipe, but a full 4 1/2 tablespoons in the filling. Sorry, not sorry- this is necessary. If you absolutely despise vanilla filling, you can substitute something more to your taste like almond or anise. But taste as you go, you may not need to substitute 1:1 with other extracts. But if you’re looking for the classic filling you remember, you’ll need a bunch of vanilla- so check your pantry before you begin!
• This recipe also calls for sour milk. No worries here if you decide to pass on the ‘sour’ part, but it’s easy to make. You just measure 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (vinegar is also okay) into a measuring cup and then fill the cup to the ‘1 Cup’ measurement mark with milk. Give it a good stir and let it sit on the counter for five minutes, and then you’re good to go. I encourage you to sour the milk if you can!
• I know it seemed like I was hating on Fluff earlier, but I wasn’t! There is some in this recipe- 7 tablespoons worth! If you don’t know what Fluff is or can’t find something by this branded name in your grocery store, it’s basically marshmallow ‘spread’ and you should be able to locate it or a more generic equivalent in the baking aisle near the regular marshmallows.
• This recipe is also going to make about a million whoopie pies. A honkin’ amount, as one might say. I have tried to cut the recipe in half, but for some reason it never turns out exactly right when I do that. It could be user error, but I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to make new friends! Hand these out to everyone you know and you’ll have good karma forever!

With all that said, let’s get baking. I’m wicked excited, aren’t you?

Authentic Maine Whoopie Pies

Bake like a real Mainah with this wicked good recipe from But First, Cookies!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings 24 pies

Ingredients

  

Chocolate Shells

• 4 cups flour all purpose
• 1 cup cocoa powder dark
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter unsalted
• 2 cups sugar white
• 2 eggs large
• 1/2 cup Crisco (shortening)
• 1 cup water hot
• 1 cup milk sour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling

• 7 Tbsp Fluff (marshmallow spread)
• 4 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 Tbsp flour all purpose
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1 1/4 cups Crisco (shortening)

Instructions

 

Whoopie Pie Shells

• Preheat oven to 350.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine the butter, sugar, shortening, eggs, and vanilla extract with a hand or stand mixer. 
• Add the hot water and sour milk to the butter mixture, and combine well. 
• In stages, add the bowl of dry ingredients to the wet bowl, mixing well after each addition. 
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop about 3 tablespoons of batter onto the sheet, leaving 2" of space between each shell. 
• Bake 10 minutes, and allow to cool several minutes on the sheet before removing to a rack to finish cooling.

Whoopie Pie Filling

• Sift the confectioner's sugar into a large bowl.
• Add all the remaining filling ingredients and mix on medium high until well combined and slightly fluffy. 
• Scoop the desired amount onto an upturned chocolate shell, and lightly press a second shell on top. 

Well, how did everything turn out? Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions, in the comments!