What’s the secret to a great whoopie pie? Centre County experts share tips

Stop into many a farm store, farmers market or local bakery throughout Happy Valley and you’ll find them. Two fluffy, moist, circular chocolate cakes sandwich a generous layer of creamy, decadent, so-sweet-it-makes-your-teeth-hurt frosting-reminiscent filling. Oftentimes, they’re simply packaged in a layer of cling wrap.

We’re talking about whoopie pies, of course.

“Whoopie pies are deeply rooted in Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish culture. They began by people using leftover cake batter to create lunch pail treats, which is why they are called ‘whoopie’ pies — the exclamation children make when finding them in their lunch pails,” explained Heather Minnich, executive chef with Penn State Bakery.

While they’re not currently available for order on the Penn State Bakery website, the bakery supplies certain spots throughout the Penn State ecosystem with whoopie pies, such as Lion Surplus, as well as, historically, Cow & Cookie in the HUB-Robeson Center.

On the surface, a whoopie pie seems simple. If you can bake a chocolate cake and whip up a standard, from-scratch frosting, it stands to reason you should be able to make this classic Amish treat. However, Minnich, as well as Russ Burkholder of Burkholder’s Country Market in Spring Mills, cautions that the process is not quite so straightforward.

For their best chances at success, Minnich tells home cooks to never overmix their ingredients, and to always use room temperature ingredients for the cake batter. That will require a little patience and leaving your butter, eggs and milk — Minnich advises using buttermilk for a more tender cake crumb — out of the fridge for a time, before you get started. Furthermore, use a baking scale to measure your ingredients, and aerate your flour before use, for the most accurate measurements.

When you’re ready to bake, use a scoop to drop the batter onto your baking sheet, so that each whoopie pie comes out uniform in size.

“The secret to a great whoopie is a soft and moist cookie,” Burkholder said. “[Baking time] can vary based on temperature and humidity. Don’t set the timer and walk away! Keep checking!”

“It’s done when the top springs back lightly,” added Minnich. Then, she says, allow the cakes to cool completely before filling them.

As for making the filling, some say marshmallow fluff is a must-have ingredient. However, some recipes will forgo the marshmallow fluff-based filling in favor of buttercream or ermine frosting, a less familiar, old-fashioned, cooked frosting.

Whatever recipe you end up trying out, once you’ve used Minnich and Burkholder’s tips for perfecting your first batch of whoopie pies, you can expand your whoopie pie repertoire by trying your hand at one of the many, more modern whoopie pie varieties.

“Classic is best but other varieties are also very good and popular,” Minnich said. “Pumpkin, red velvet and peanut butter-filled [whoopie pies] are all very popular and enjoyed by our customers.”

Burkholder likewise says Burkholder’s Country Market is a fan of whoopie pies that go beyond the classic chocolate-and-vanilla combo, selling quite a few different varieties, including the market’s favorited oatmeal cookie whoopies.

However, if you’re still not sure your skills as a home baker have quite developed to take on this deceptively simple-looking treat, there’s no need to worry. There are plenty of places throughout Centre County to purchase them. Burkholder’s, for example, has developed a following for its whoopie pies thanks to a few factors, such as, Burkholder said, their consistency, soft cookies, homemade filling and large size (he also cheekily claims that the market uses a secret ingredient that keeps the whoopie pies moist, longer, but he declined to share that ingredient).

Other spots around Happy Valley where you can pick up some homemade whoopie pies include Way Fruit Farm in Port Matilda and State College, Mammy’s Donut Shop in Rebersburg and The Country Kitchen & Dutch Valley Bakery in Spring Mills.

Holly Riddle is a freelance food, travel and lifestyle writer. She can be reached at holly.ridd@gmail.com.