Dark Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Salted Caramel Frosting & Salted Caramel Sauce

Go ahead and wipe the drool, it's okay I won't tell anyone.  Yes, I was pretty proud of myself.  This one's dandy.
 

I wanted to test two things here making these pies: one, that I could attempt making caramel from scratch.  And two, that I could make cream cheese frosting that didn't separate.  After a bit of trial and error (and cursing) I figured out the tricks. 

First, for the caramel you MUST, I repeat MUST not be interrupted during the sacred caramel process.  No phone calls, no potty breaks, no 'mommy I'm hungry.'  Yep you must devote 15 short minutes to watching that pan boil.  If you turn your back for one quick second it will scorch before you have the chance to say 'oh *uck!'  It's OK, it happened to me, not gonna lie.  But the second time around it was perfect.  Oh, and the use of a candy thermometer works immensely.   

For the cream cheese frosting, I finally figured out the secret.  Every time I try to prepare this 'delicious-sin-in-a-bowl', it separates.  And becomes gritty.  And is ugly and drippy.  Forget about piping, the consistency is non-existent.  But here is the trick.  Leave your cream cheese out overnight to guarantee it is room temperature.  Take the butter out of the fridge 3 hours before you're going to start preparing the frosting.  It shouldn't be cool, but it should still hold the shape of a cut cube.  Also, and this is equally as important…do not over beat.  The more you beat cream cheese the more it will start to separate.   Beat in the powdered sugar until it disappears, and then stop.   Sounds simple enough but these two tricks made all the difference in the world.  This was the first time I have EVER piped cream cheese frosting.  Whoopie.   

Whoopie Pies.

If you're not familiar, whoopie pies are pretty much the same thing as a cupcake, just layered differently.  A whoopie pie is composed of a cake top and bottom, with frosting in the middle.  Easy to eat and easy to store.

The origin of the name is hilarious, oh you're going to love this.  Whoopie pies are originally an Amish treat (I was surprised by this, isn't sugar a sin?).  The wives would put the pies in their husband's lunch pail and when they'd open it at lunch time they'd see the sin cake, ahem, whoopie pie and yell 'WHOOPIE!'  I guess sugar can do that to you when you don't have electricity.

No disrespect to the Amish, just having some fun.  My family is originally from Pennsylvania so the Amish are A-OK with me.    

I may have mentioned this before but I am somewhat of a sucker when it comes to kitchen gadgets.  I think it's because I really love to cook and if there is a tool out there that will help make my life easier, I'm all for it.

I don't know if the Williams-Sonoma Whoopie Pie Pan would make my life any easier, but I fell for it anyway.  SUCKA…I know.

BUT I did have a very good reason to buy this pan…I had recently made whoopie pies a few months back but they turned out more like whoopie chushions.  They were HUGE.  Like the diameter of pancakes.  Yes, yes delicious I know, but dainty – not even close.  The recipe didn't specify how much batter to place on the pan, so I eyeballed an amount.  Which must have been somewhere around 1/3 of a cup.  Too much.  WAY too much.

If you do decide to purchase the pan, here is a tip: To remove, gently turn the cake while still inside the pan and it will slide right out.  I only realized this on the last batch so lucky you!   

A note on salted caramel.

The salted caramel craze hit a few years back, but due to the overwhelming popularity it's become more of a staple with confectionary chefs.  Even Starbucks got in on the bandwagon and developed a salted caramel hot chocolate, yum.  Wal-Mart, yep Wal-Mart has introduced a salted caramel to their store brand selection of truffles.  Yowza.  I figured now that salted caramel has hit main-stream America, I better hurry up and learn how to make it before something new comes rolling into town.

So just how to describe salted caramel if you haven't encountered it yet?  Well, don't let the salt fool you.  It's not like potato chip salty.  It's more like a touch of salt on your tongue.  Just enough for you to notice, but not over-power.  The salt merely enhances the sweetness.

The ingredients are incredibly simple: water, sugar, heavy cream, butter, and fleur de sel.  But the technique, not so much.  As I mentioned earlier I burned the first batch.  It came together so fast I wasn't sure how long I should continue keeping it on the heat.  Something strange I noticed was that it burned in one spot in the pan.  This told me something fishy was going on.  See I was using kind of a cheap-o pan.  It's thin with no Teflon, maybe from Ikea.  It wasn't distributing the heat thoroughly and I think that is why I got the hot spot.  So for the second batch I used my special T-fal pan that I love as much as my Kitchen Aid mixer.  It  has a little red heat symbol on the bottom of the pan that disappears once its pre-heated, cool I know.  With the second batch (using this pan) it was like I was testing a different recipe.  It came together beautifully and took it's time.  Once it turned amber in color (which is when you should remove from the heat) it didn't burn up or turn black, it just slowly became deeper in color, which is what you want to achieve.

Whoopie Pies (cake only)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder OR Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg

Directions:

If you're here in Dubai you'll know that it is impossible to find buttermilk and you'll have to make your own.  It's simple, don't worry you don't need a churn.  Just some vinegar or lemon juice.  Take one tablespoon of either (taste will not be affected, both work the same) and pour into a measuring cup.  Fill with milk until you've got 1 cup.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Give it a stir and poof you've got buttermilk (or something close enough).

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Once it's sifted, use a whisk to incorporate.  This ensures it's thoroughly combined with no salt/baking soda pockets.

Add vanilla to the buttermilk and stir to combine.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well.

Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.

Grease either the whoopie pie pan or a baking sheet with Crisco, butter or baking spray.  If you use crisco or butter here is a tip to help grease the pans with little fuss.

Using a sandwich baggie like a glove dig out about 2 tablespoons of crisco and wipe down the pan.  No fuss no muss.

Using a cookie scoop fill whoopie pie pan holes with batter.  Fill entire hole and level with the back of a spoon.  If using a baking sheet, measure out 1/4 cup mounds of batter and place 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

 

Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and let sit on a wire rack to cool.

Salted Caramel Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel

Directions:

Add water to a 2-qt saucepan. Gently add the sugar to the center of the pot, give it a swirl to level it out.

Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat.  Bubbles should like this:

Once boiling, uncover the pot and insert a candy thermometer. Continue cooking until the mixture registers 300 F and is just starting to develop some color, about 15 minutes.

Reduce heat under the pot to medium and cook until the syrup is amber and registers 350 F on the thermometer, about another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. If it simmers before the syrup is ready, just take it off the heat and set aside.

Remove the caramel from the heat and add about 1/4 of the warm cream to the pot. It will bubble furiously so be careful. Once the bubbling subsides, add the remaining cream.  When it stops bubbling, whisk gently to incorporate fully.

 

Add the butter and the salt and whisk to combine.

 

Refrigerate up to 1 month.

Salted Caramel Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter, out of the fridge for 3 hours

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup salted caramel

3-4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugar till whipped and fluffy.

Add salted caramel.  Beat until combined, but do not over-mix.

Add sifted powdered sugar and mix until just combined, no more.

Assembly

Now we've got all the components ready let's put these babies together.  So easy the kids could do this part. 

As you'll see I've used a pasty bag and a piping tip to pipe the icing and sauce.  This is by no means necessary.  I just wanted it to look pretty for the pictures.  You can simply spoon the frosting onto the cake and drizzle the sauce on with a fork if you wish.

For piping the frosting, I used a 2D tip.  It makes pretty little ribbons.  To make things easier on yourself, use this tip I learned in a cake decorating class.  Get yourself a large cup.  Have your pastry bag with the tip already in place near by.

 

Place the bag inside the cup and fold the edge over the side of the cup.  This makes it ridiculously easy to fill.

Using a spatula, fill the pastry bag about half way.  You don't want to over-fill otherwise the frosting can seep out the back and cause a mess.  Also having a bag that isn't filled too high is easier for your hand to grip.

For the caramel I used a much smaller tip, a #3.  Also, if you're not a fan of pastry bags, simply fill a zip-lock back with caramel and snip off the corner (just a small snip otherwise it will ooze out).  Make sure you seal the bag before hand! 

Lay out half of your whoopie pies and pipe (or spoon) the frosting onto the flat side.

 

Then pipe (or drizzle) the caramel.

Place another cake on top.  Job complete.

That was a long one but well worth the effort.

 

Enjoy!

Whoopie Pie cake recipe and Salted Caramel Sauce adapted from Erin's Food Files.

Salted Caramel Frosting courtesy of Baked Bree.

Pie Crust 101 & Gentleman's Apple Pie

Pie Crust 101

This topic is even scary for me.  I've made ONE pie in my entire life.  By that I mean an apple pie with
dough from scratch that I rolled by hand and topped with a fancy-shamcy lattice crust.  I used Martha's recipe and it tasted great.  It just looked horrid. 

See I have this weird habit of not trusting recipes, maybe I mentioned this before.  Not because I think 'oh I have a baking blog I know everything' oh no, not at all.  I just think, there must be a type-o here, how could it be that this pie recipe calls for 3 pounds of chopped apples?  That is way too much, I will only use one pound.  This is why I am writing a blog about LEARNING how to bake.  All those apples SHRINK while baking, so it may go into the oven looking like 3 pounds, but it certainly doesn't come out looking that way. 

When I stacked all those apples into the pie crust it was an apple mountain.  I took more than half out, cursing the person who edited the cookbook.  Alas, it came out of the oven looking pitiful, shriveled, and defeated.  My lattice shrunk and sank.  The juice from the apples absorbed into the top crust and became soggy.  Talk about heartbreaking. 

Last year Martha Stewart came out with a new cookbook entitled 'Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts.' The pictures are remarkable and the pies seem so friendly and perky, like they're saying 'bake me'.  I've owned this damn cookbook for almost a year and I've been too terrified to try and bake from it.  I haven't had the guts to re-roll and try again; defeat is not an emotion I take lightly.  Well, today we'll overcome our fear of pie.  I'll go first and as before, I'll tell you what NOT to do.  Oh, and let's follow the recipe this time.
 
I had a good laugh while reading the forward written by our fearless leader Martha herself.  Here are her words to empower us all: 'Pies (and tarts) remain among America's favorite desserts, and to bake a delectable example of either is something every home baker should be able to do.'  Yes ma'am. 

How to bake a perfect pie every time

Quality ingredients, correct temperature (of the dough), and proper technique.  These three components should guarantee you a delectable pie.  Well, at least something edible anyway.  Don't worry so much about how it looks the first time around.  If your crusts edges are a bit crooked or not fluted to perfection it's OK…let's get the technique down before we enter our pies into a beauty pageant.

Quality Ingredients

A typical pie crust recipe usually only contains about 5 ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, salt, and water).  Since we're not working with too many components here, let's make these few items count.

Butter: 

I can never stress this point enough, when it comes to butter, choose quality over 'double-coupon day margarine'.  Select a brand of butter with a high percentage of fat.  82 or 83% is ideal.  Butter with a higher fat content means it will have less water and in turn will provide a flakier, more crispy, buttery, fatty, oh-that's-good crust.

People often ask me which brand of butter I opt for and the answer is easy and always the same:

You cannot beat the taste, consistency, or quality of President.  Also, it has 82% fat which is what we're looking for, especially with regards to pastry dough:

 
Flour:

Always use all-purpose flour (unless otherwise indicated in your recipe).  Flour acts as the structure in your dough and when prepared correctly will produce a crust that is tender and not too crumbly. 

Salt:

Salt?  Yes, salt.  If you're a veteran baker you'll know almost any cookie, cake, brownie, or pie recipe typically always calls for salt.  However when salt is added to a sweet dish (compared to a savory one) it's purpose is not to make the taste 'salty' as it would in say french fries.  Because such a small amount is added it will never be tasted as 'salt'.  It will merely improve and enhance the flavors.

Sugar:

Some pie dough recipes will call for sugar, others won't.  Really it’s a matter of preference.  I've noticed as I've been researching different recipes some call for powdered sugar, which is new to me.  Most traditional recipes always specify granulated.  So what's the difference?  As far as I can sort out, some people prefer using powdered sugar due to its finer texture as compared to granulated.  Granulated sugar (in large amounts) can cause your dough to become sticky and fussy to work with.   Another fact I was unaware of is some brands of powdered sugar contain cornstarch (to help prevent clumping).  Due to this addition, you cannot easily swap out powdered sugar for granulated in a recipe.  The proportions are not equal and you could ultimately disrupt the delicate balance of moisture/fat/flour in your dough .  See pie dough is MOODY and sensitive.  I would recommend if your recipes calls for granulated, use granulated.  Stick with what works.

Water:

Well that seems easy enough doesn’t it.  Wrong again.  You need your water damn cold.  This element is crucial  for your pie dough.  If you add room temperature water to your dough you could ever so slightly warm up the butter, which is exactly what we're trying NOT to do.  You need the butter cold at all time, even cold going into the oven.   

Dough Temperature

When it comes to preparing pie dough, always remember the colder the better.  Everything from the ingredients, your hands, the counter, to your bowls…all should resemble 'brrr.' 

Before you even get started on combing the dough, mix up your flour, salt, and sugar.  Place this bowl in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  I know, who knew.  As for your butter, cut it up into small bite size chunks (butter should be COLD from the fridge at this point, don't let it sit out on the counter BY ANY MEANS!).  Take the cubes of butter and place them back in the fridge.  Let the flour mixture and butter firm up and only then can we get a mixin'.

Once you've prepared your dough, place it back into the fridge for NO less than 1 hour.  Overnight is best…unless you're impatient like me then stick in the freezer till it's quite firm and you can squeeze it just slightly.      

Technique

The technique I am going to show you is used to prepare a Pate Brisee dough.  Ooh la-la.  English translation: short crust pastry dough.  Further translation, a short crust pastry is one that can be used for either sweet or savory pies and tarts.  If you are making this dough for a savory pie, you can omit the sugar.  A short crust recipe is not the same as puff pastry dough since your short crust recipe doesn't include any leavening agents like baking powder or soda (and thus will not rise).  But who needs lift when you've got that flaky crust?

Pate Brise (Short Crust Pastry Dough)
from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks/8 ounces/225 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Since butter here in Dubai is sold in grams (and for that matter every other flippin place in the world except the US)  we need to first weigh it to get ourselves 8 ounces.  If you're in the US just go get yourself 2 sticks of butter...you lucky ducky.

Next, chop up the butter into small pieces.  Make sure it's straight out of the fridge before you do so, otherwise you'll have a mess on your hands. 

Mix together the flour, salt, and sugar.  Don't forget to sift.  Place bowl in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Everything has to be cold, yep even the dry.

In the meantime, pour your water into a measuring cup (you'll need this so it will be easier to pour into the food processor).  Add ice and place in fridge.  You need your water to be ice cold, not room temperature with some ice.  I know, I know...but trust me it makes all the difference.

Once your dry ingredients have had a chance to chill, add to the food processor and pulse for about ten seconds.  This gets all the particles nice and smooth.

Add your chopped butter.

Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about ten seconds.  You should still see some larger pieces.

Next, slowly drizzle your ice water (starting with only 1/4 cup, adding more if necessary) and pulse until your dough just begins to come together.  Try pinching a piece; it should not be wet or sticky.  Add up to a 1/4 cup more water if necessary, one tablespoon at a time.

Place the dough mixture (yes it will be crumbly like this, only due to the cold water and butter) onto a piece of plastic wrap.  Quickly shape the dough into two equal balls.

I weighed the two balls of dough so I'd have exactly an equal amount for the top and bottom crust.  You don't need to be a fanatic like this, eye-balling is okay.  I just like using my new fancy scale from Santa.  But it is nice to know you've got two equal amounts.  Mine can out to be approximately 12.3 ounces.

Wrap the two balls of dough separately in plastic warp and place in the fridge for at least one hour to firm up.

Once your dough has chilled, remove the plastic and place onto a lightly dusted counter.  Be sure to also dust your rolling pin.  Think less is more here.  You can always add more flour if need be.  Adding too much flour can cause the dough to become tough.  If you find you're having trouble working the dough, allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Carefully roll the dough, starting from center working toward the edge.  Rotate dough every few rolls by 1/8 of a turn.  This helps keep the round shape.

Next, make sure your pie dish is close by.  Slowly turn your dough onto the rolling pin.  This will help you pick it up and place onto the dish.

Okay here it can be tricky.  Make sure the dough is evenly centered.  You don't want to have to pick it up and shift it over.  It ain't easy.

Once you've got the dough in the dish, press it into the edges and make sure its somewhat consistent.  Cover your dish with plastic wrap and place in the fridge so the dough chills back up, yet again.  Take a breath, we're half-way there.

Preparing the filling:

The filling recipe is adapted from my new favorite cookbook 'Baked.  New Frontiers in Baking.'

Baked, a bakery located in Brooklyn was founded in 2005 by two friends Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  These guys know, understand, and appreciate 'Americana' baking.  Every single recipe is something I would love to share with you.  To read more about Baked, please visit their website here.  If you live near Brooklyn, go pay their shop a visit.  I can guarantee they will not disappoint.  If you can't make it out, please pick up their cookbook...I'd love to test all their recipes but damn then I'd give it all away for free.  Gotta show these boys some love.

Gentleman's Apple Pie (because of the whiskey, tee-hee-hee)  

*Please note for the pie I prepared here, I used Martha Stewart's Pate Brise recipe for the dough, only because I made it before and it was a total flop and I wanted to give it another crack.  I am sure the recipe from Baked is equally as awesome.  For the original 'Classic Apple Pie' recipe from Baked, refer to page 93 from the cookbook above.

Ingredients:

Pate Brise, prepared as shown above

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

7 medium granny smith apples

3 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon whiskey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg, beaten

1 tablespoon raw sugar

First, give your apples a good wash and scrub.  I thought the apples I bought weren't quite large enough so I added one red gala I had hanging out in the fridge.

I know you know how to peel apples.  But, I found a way to make it less irritating.  First, peel around  the top of the apple as shown here in the red gala.

Then do the same to the bottom of the apple.

This allows you to make quick straight peels up and down, getting that apple naked in no time.

Unfortunately I don't have an apple corer, and only this monster apple slicer, but it does the job.  Core all the apples.

On a side note, if you wonder what I do with my son while I'm baking I let him roam the kitchen causing a disaster.  Sometimes he likes to eat his socks.  As long as he's not grabbing knives I'm cool with that.

Okay, where were we?  Yep, core all those flippin apples.

Then slice each apple segment in half.  No more.  You need your apples about 1/4" thick.

In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and brown sugar.

Using a heavy skillet, melt the butter.  Swirl the butter around in your pan until it becomes brown.  This took longer than I thought so be patient.  Maybe 10 minute or so.  But don't do this on a super-high heat, otherwise it will burn.  Low and Slow is the Way to Go.

Once the butter has browned, add HALF the apples and saute on low heat until the apples are soft and tender.  Also takes about 10 minutes.  Once the apples are cooked, add the remaining chopped apples and the brown sugar/cornstarch.  Cook until the sugar has melted.

And looks sinful like this. 

Break out the Jack it's booze time.  Add the vanilla, whiskey, and cinnamon to the saucepan and cook for about 5 minutes until the juices are thick and bubbly.  Don't over-cook this part.  I have to say the filling was still very thin at this point and I had to add an additional 3 teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken it back up.  If this happens to you, add cornstarch 1 teaspoon at a time until you've reached the desired consistency.  This may have been due to the fact that my apples weren't very big.  I think I could have probably even added two more. 

Remove the apple mixture from the heat and set aside.   Next we'll get started on that top dough.  Remove you pie dish out of the fridge and keep in close by.  You don't want to be carrying rolled dough all over the kitchen.  Make life easy for yourself.  Roll out your dough in the same manner as before, starting from center to edge, rotating 1/8 a turn after every couple of rolls.

Next, pour the apple mixture into the pie dish.  Roll the dough onto the rolling pin.   

Carefully fit the dough into the edges and try to make it look clean and pretty.  You can see here mine is a little crooked but its OK.  You won't even notice once it's baked.

Take a sharp kitchen knife and cut some slits into the top of the pie, cutting all the way through the dough.  You need these air vents to release steam that's created by the apples.  Otherwise you could have an explosion.  And you know who's going to get stuck cleaning up that mess.  Additionally, if you have some sweet little cookie cutters you could also cut shapes into the dough.  The possibilities here are endless.  Here is a quick little video to get the idea.  Warning: these women are ding-bats but it's alright, so am I.

Before we can put this baby into the oven, we need to give it an egg wash.  Break an egg in a small bowl and give it a good whisk.  Using a pastry brush, give the top of your pie a good wash.  This helps the crust come out of the oven looks shinny, beautiful, and oh-so tempting.  Lastly, sprinkle the raw sugar on top of the egg wash.  The raw sugar gives the crust a nice crunch and looks pretty fab too.

This is another Martha tip and a damn good one too.  Place your pie onto a sheet pan in the event any of the juices from the pie seep out.  This makes for easy clean up.  I added a piece of waxed paper as well since cleaning pans is no fun.

Bake at 375 F. for 1 hour, or until the crust is brown and gorgeous and the juices are bubbly.  Let cool on a wire rack for about an hour.  I know it's hard but you must let the pie relax and cool down, trust me it's much easier to slice this way.

ENJOY!!!