July 07th, 2020

Behold!  The humble Whoopie Pie.  Well humble but delicious.

In truth, I suppose it's not very pretty.  Certainly not fancy.  And the name is downright silly.  I always feel kind of ridiculous when I say it out loud. Go ahead, Try it.  Say Whoppie Pie out loud while maintaining your decorum.  It's like the clown prince of dessert names.

But dang they are good.

I'm told that the name of this delectable treat came from the reaction of those who found whoopie pies in their lunch pails.  As in, "what for lunch today?  oh my!  Whoopie!"  I have my doubts about that story.

I do know that they were first commercially produced by Labadie's Bakery in Lewiston Maine in the early 1900's.  Which would by why I know about them.  It's that Maine connection.  My mother hails from a teensy little town on the coast of Maine.  And her mother (that would be my grandmother) was an amazing baker.  She was a very so-so cook but her baking more than made up for it.  And since my sister and I spent most of our summers through our childhood in our grandmother's house in the ittybitty town on the coast of Maine, we are Very Familiar with whoppie pies.

Essentially it is a cookie sandwich.  Unlike the Oreo cookie sandwich, which oddly was invented right about the same time, though in Hoboken NJ and not Maine, it is a soft sandwich.  The top and bottom parks are almost, but not exactly, cake-like.  And the filling is soft and fluffy and thick and awesome.  Now I like Oreo's.  I like them a lot.  But I LOVE whoppie pies.

Probably it's that childhood connection thing. But I don't care about the why of it.  I only care that they exist.

I know that there are other parts of the country that also boast Whoppie Pies but those do not taste the same.  The filling in those other ones tends toward marshmallow.  Now I like marshmallows. I like 'em just fine.  But they do not belong in whoppie pies.  Nope not a bit.  And I am quite certain that some folks will be inclined to argue that point with me.  Don't bother.  My mind is made up.

Middle son and his wife once gave me a cookbook of whoppie pies and I was stunned to realize that they can be made in different flavours!  I dont' know why that never occurred to me before.  Chocolate chip?  Oh yeah.  Oatmeal?  Sure why not?  Red Velvet?  Me oh my!  And the fillings of course can be adjusted to suit the different flavour of the 'cake' of the sandwich.  Brilliant!  And yummy too.  I had so much fun playing with those different flavours and combinations for awhile.

But since I do not make them often anymore, when I do bother to do so, I go for the original most of the time.  Two soft rich chocolate-y cakes with a big old pile of fluffy vanilla yumminess squished in between. Mercy.

When I make them, I keep them in the freezer.  Oh yeah, they can be eaten directly from the freezer. It keeps them firm, not hard.  And there is something about cold and chocolate that is a match made in heaven.  

And now that I've tickled my own tastebuds with this idea, I think I may have one for breakfast.  Hey, if I'm having it for breakfast, it becomes a breakfast sandwich.  Sort of like eating oatmeal cookies for breakfast.  It's oatmeal, therefore it must be healthy, right?

Fine you have your breakfast of choice and I will have mine.  We will see who's tastebuds are happier. (the answer is mine of course)