Cookie of the Week Part 2: Valentine Whoopie Pies

When I was in my Whoopie Pie makin’ frenzy the other day I decided try to make some Valentine themed pies. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I gave the experiment a try.

I wanted to make heart-shaped whoopies pies. Just dropping the batter in rounds on cookie sheets, baking them and then cutting hearts out of the centers would create a lot of waste. So I spread the batter out into a jelly-roll pan and baked it in one big sheet.

I was concerned that the large “cookie” might burn on the bottom before it was done in the middle, but surprisingly it baked at the same temperature in the same amount of time as the individual cookies. After it came out of the oven, I ran a knife around the edge of pan then placed a large cutting board on top and flipped it over. The sheet of cookie came right out of the pan in one big piece. Success so far!

I let it cool completely then cut out the heart shaped cookies.I had quite a bit of filling left over from making the standard whoopie pies. To go along with the Valentine theme I flavored the filling with Cherry Extract and added a few drops of red food coloring to make a nice pink shade.

But I had one more step in mind to really make these Whoopie Pies sinfully delicious. I coated them in milk chocolate. I found some chocolate candy coating at the store that could be melted in the microwave. I thought I would be able to dip the cookies, but the chocolate was thicker than I would have liked. So I had to frost them with the chocolate. The chocolate coating harded in about half an hour.

I was worried I might have over done it, and the Valentine Whoopie Pies were going to be sickenly sweet. But the cherry flavor complemented the chocolate very well. There was enough contrast between the sweet chocolate coating and the darker chocolate cookie the it wasn’t over-powering. They turned out to be really good, in my opinion, anyway. And they look pretty too!

See Cookie of the Week: Makin’ Whoopie Pies for the cookie and filling recipe.