Oley, PA: Whoopie Pies

It seems that almost every place in the US has its own sugar cream-filled cookie or cake treat, whether dipped in chocolate or not. (We'll be looking at this form, again, when we come to moon pies, scooter pies, etc.) In parts of Pennsylvania, these are made with soft cake and called Whoopie pies. They have even started to invade New York City, as witnessed by a recent article in The New York Times. (Just in case they make me delete the link, it appeared on March 18, 2009.)
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I went to Pennsylvania not too long ago with my friend, Dr. Deborah Klens-Bigman, who hails from Lock Haven, PA and who is very familiar with the surrounding area.  It isn't Lancaster, but quite a few Amish folk farm around there, and it is quite normal -- as opposed to touristy -- to run into them in the course of the day.  Deb grew up with Amish folk around; she always waves to the people in the buggys, and guess what -- they wave back!  To someone who lives in NYC and has forgotten how to make eye contact even, this is amazing.
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We went to Glick's to get fresh vegetables to take back to the gritty city. Glick's started as an Amish farmer's roadside vegetable stand, and has grown into a sizeable veggie operation while still retaining that farmstand feeling.  (I was really impressed by and almost fell into the huge barrel to hold plastic bags people bring.) Anybody who deals in veggies will sooner or later deal with pickles, jams, jellies and the like in an attempt to use unsold produce.  From there, it's relatively easy to wander into baked goods, and sure enough, there was a pile of zucchini bread and Whoopie pies by the register.  In addition to veggies, I also bought strawberry jelly, pickled (hot) peppers -- and a Whoopie pie filled with peanut butter filling! Woo hoo!!  (. . . um, er . . . I guess I mean -- Whoopie!!)   I had been introduced to the Whoopie pie on my last trip to PA with Deb, but that was a commercial product purchased at a rest stop en route, and this one was clearly homemade.
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A Whoopie pie is essentially, a chocolate cake shaped like a hamburger bun, split in half like a hamburger bun, and filled with some kind of sugar cream or marshmallow fluff sweet filling.  Deb went for the classic version, but I opted for peanut butter, which I adore in any form.  We went to the Clinton County Fair, and when Deb parked the car, finally we couldn't stand it any longer.  Off came the plastic wrap.  We fell upon the Whoopie pies and consumed them slowly, with a lot of "ummmm"-ing going on!
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In the course of researching this entry, I've found that Maine also claims the Whoopie pie.   Did it crawl there on the back of a lobster?  We'll add a link to this entry on Maine's state page, too.  When I looked at many, many pictures of them, many of the Maine Whoopie pies seemed to have a little more filling than cake, while the original Amish version seems to be more cake than filling.  That would make sense if the Amish version did indeed come from using leftover cake batter, and the Maine version came from Marshmallow Fluff.  (Here's that recipe.)  I hear there's something similar -- I know, I know . . . but different -- called "Gobs", and we'll investigate those on another entry.

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Just for the record, Deb said she had never and would never eat one with marshmallow on it.  I'm not fond of marshmallow myself, except for the ones grilled over a fire on sticks (sometimes I think I could eat charcoal briquettes), and certainly, I've never tasted homemade marshmallow.  So Whoopie pies appear to divide down two lines:  marshmallow versus non-marshmallow, and flavored cake/frosting versus traditional. 

Thanks for this beautiful photo of Whoopie pies, kindly provided by King Arthur Flour from their blog, Baker's Banter.  They actually have two Whoopie pie articles: here is a Whoopie pie recipe in pictures , and here is "The Big Whoop", from the Baker's Banter.  Both have marshmallow, but even if you prefer traditional filling, you can look at the pictures to see the how, and use your own recipe for the what.

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Whoopie pies themselves, are morphing into an all-American gourmet treat.  Amish folk also appear to make a pumpkin version, an oatmeal version, a gingerbread version, I've seen a red velvet version, and there appear to be all kinds of fillings being invented.  They can be dressed up by dipping the edges in sprinkles or applying a stripe or two of icing on top.  You can also pipe the center in with a decorative tip, but that kind of takes away from the artisanal look and feel of a generous spoonful of cream being blopped onto the cake. When does a Whoopie pie stop being a Whoopie pie?  Probably when you stop saying, "Whoopie!!!"

For more than you wanted to know: 
Amish Whoopie pie recipies

Whoopie pie history
The Yummy Book that may have started it all for Maine
Maine Whoopie pie recipies