I recently replenished my supply of boiled cider (I get it from King Arthur Flour and it's a bit spendy... but making a significant volume of your own reduced cider is not exactly cheap either, and it's time consuming to boot), so I decided to make Samantha Seneviratne's recipe for Apple Cider Whoopie Pies. Her recipe includes instructions to reduce your own cider, but if you happen to have boiled cider on hand, it speeds things up considerably.
To make the cake batter, you beat room temperature butter with dark brown sugar until fluffy; add an egg, apple butter (I used Kime's, which is made from only apples and apple cider, with no sugar or cinnamon added) and reduced cider; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon ground ginger, and freshly ground nutmeg).
I used a #30 scoop to portion out the batter and I got 16 cakes from a batch of dough, enough to make eight assembled pies. While they were still warm from the oven, I brushed the cakes with melted butter and dredged them in cinnamon sugar. I sandwiched the cooled cakes around a filling made from cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
I thought the whoopie pies were adorable, if a little messy because they shed cinnamon sugar everywhere. The cakes had tall domed tops, so the assembled pies were quite rotund. They were delicious. The cakes reminded me a lot of the Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts I made recently; the flavor profile was similar, as was the dense but soft texture that called out for a glass of milk or a cup of coffee. The tangy cream cheese filling was perfect. The pies were a huge hit with my tasters.
If I have one complaint, it's that the ratio of filling to cake was a little low. While the tall domed cakes made for beautiful whoopie pies, I think that flatter cakes would make it easier to include more filling in each pie. But either way, these pies are a fantastic fall dessert.
Recipe: "Apple Cider Whoopie Pies" by Samantha Seneviratne, from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
To make the cake batter, you beat room temperature butter with dark brown sugar until fluffy; add an egg, apple butter (I used Kime's, which is made from only apples and apple cider, with no sugar or cinnamon added) and reduced cider; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon ground ginger, and freshly ground nutmeg).
I used a #30 scoop to portion out the batter and I got 16 cakes from a batch of dough, enough to make eight assembled pies. While they were still warm from the oven, I brushed the cakes with melted butter and dredged them in cinnamon sugar. I sandwiched the cooled cakes around a filling made from cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
If I have one complaint, it's that the ratio of filling to cake was a little low. While the tall domed cakes made for beautiful whoopie pies, I think that flatter cakes would make it easier to include more filling in each pie. But either way, these pies are a fantastic fall dessert.
Recipe: "Apple Cider Whoopie Pies" by Samantha Seneviratne, from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies," November 28, 2018.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Brown Sugar Whoopie Pies with Maple Marshmallow Filling," December 20, 2015.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Banana Whoopie Pies," June 29, 2014.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Whoopie Pies," February 12, 2012.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies," February 13, 2011.
- "A Bit of Holiday Sparkle: The Gingerbread Whoopie Pie," December 1, 2009.
- "Baby Shower Baked Goods: Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies," October 8, 2008.
- "Whoopie!," September 1, 2008.
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