Whoopie for Pies!

Recipe of the Week:

Whoopie Pies
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen (actually yield about 15 good-sized whoopie pies)

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar

1 1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

1 cup of milk

Filling:

5 tbsp of flour

1 cup of milk

1 cup of vegetable shortening

1 stick of butter

1 cup of sugar

1/4 tsp of salt

1 tsp of vanilla

To make filling: In a small saucepan, combine flour and milk. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly with a whisk, until thick. Remove from heat to cool.

To make cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets. Combine flour, cocoa powder, soda and cream of tartar in a bowl. In another bowl, beat sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until combined. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until set, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. Finish the filling by beating the shortening, butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until well-blended. Blend in the flour-milk mixture. Beat until filling is the consistency of whipped cream. Spread heaping spoonfuls of the filling between cooled cookies. Wrap the whoopies pies seperately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate.

Review: Considering I have never tried a real whoopie pie before I think that these were a good representation of their species:) My sister and I both like the chocolate cake cookies and they baked and set very nicely in their 8-10 minute stay in the oven. The filling had a nice texture that was enhanced by the thickened milk mixture. However, for some reason it had a rather "lardy" taste as my sister termed it. It was not a unpalatable "lardy" just noticeable. Next time I would probably fill the cookies with a mixture of cool whip and peanut butter and freeze for several minutes. I think this would be a lighter and more delicious foil for the beautiful chocolate cake cookies. This recipe would gain 3.0 stars in my book. I loved the cookies (as you can tell) and would like to experiment with different fillings (mint ice cream perhaps?). Yum!

When Life Gives You Lemons- Make Lemon Bars!

Recipe of the Week

Lemon Bars

Yield: 16 small squares(they are rich)

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar plus additional for sprinkling

1 stick of butter

2 eggs

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour and 1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar in a bowl. Cut in butter, blending well. Pat mixture onto the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan. Bake 20 minutes. Meanwhile, beat together eggs, baking powder, granulated sugar, lemon juice and salt. Pour over warm baked crust. Return to oven. Bake until set, 20-25 minutes. Cool. Sprinkle with addtional confectioners' sugar. Cut into squares.

Review:

This staple of many bake sales jumped out at me when I needed something sweet and quick (i.e. one hour max) to take to a potluck. This recipe is relatively simple with a total prep/baking time of about 45 minutes. The result was your basic homemade lemon bars. I highly reccomend doubling the crust in this recipe as it was surprisingly sparse when I pressed it into my 8-inch baking pan (especially since the crust is the best part). In total I would rate this recipe 2.5 out of 5 stars. The pros were that is was easy to prepare and had a good taste it you like lemon bars. The cons were the thinness of the crust. These might not be grandma's lemon bars but they were buttery and sweet and sometimes that is just what hits the spot.

Intro to Fifty Cookies

I am an 18 year-old freshman attending the Ohio State University and the purpose of this blog is to chronicle my own personal Julie and Julia challenge(watch the movie). The idea came to me when the Columbus Dispatch ran a special baking section containing 50 different cookie recipes. My challenge is to bake a batch a week and record the recipe success/failure using a five-star rating system. I think it is going to be delicious year:)