Chocolate Whoopie Pies: a COVID birthday

Everyone should get a little whoopie on his or her birthday.  But while a little whoopie is a good thing, being quarantined in the house while #covidbaking with a full batch of little cakes is asking for trouble, so I quartered the recipe to make 4.  (Original recipe makes 15.)  I cut the sugar of the cookie part in half, and threw in a little protein powder so I'd feel less guilty, but at a 2:1 ratio since it sucks up so much moisture.

There are a lot of whoopie pie recipes out there.  I don't know where I got this one, but I chose it because there's no vegetable shortening and it uses a cooked flour filling, which helps cut the sweetness.

For 4, 3¼ " cakes, here's what I used:

1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon pea protein powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 pinch spoon of salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 egg
4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons milk

Cream Filling:
3/4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 375°. Line baking sheets with aluminum foil; coat with cooking spray.  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in mixing bowl until creamy, 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and eggs for 30 seconds. On low speed, beat in cocoa. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk in 3 additions.  Drop 2 tablespoons mixture per cookie onto prepared sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Shape each into 2¼” rounds (keep size equal since they will be sandwiched.) Bake in 375° oven for 12-14 minutes or until cookies spring back when lightly touched in center. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Stir flour and milk in saucepan until smooth. Bring to simmering over medium heat, whisking, until thickened and bubbly; cook 1 minute.  Remove from heat. Whisk in 1/2 tablespoon butter until smooth. Press waxed paper directly on surface. Let stand until cool to touch, about 45 minutes.  Beat remaining 1½ tablespoons butter, the vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar in small bowl until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping bottom and side of bowl as needed. Add milk mixture; beat 1 minute or until smooth and fluffy. Sandwich together pairs of cookies with 2 tablespoons filling, pressing lightly until filling begins to show around edges. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers in refrigerator.

I baked them for 12 minutes and they were overdone, even starting to burn a little. I didn't measure my rounds, but I tried to estimate a 2¼" diameter.  I made only 1/2 of an extra cookie--Right?  Fifteen sandwich cakes need 30 cookies, divided by 4 is 7.5 cookies.  I made 8.--so I wouldn't think it would affect them that much.  Maybe my oven was too hot.  (One thermometer read 400 and the other 350.  I split the difference.)  I was hoping for something softer and thicker.

I'm wondering why the cocoa is mixed in separately.  It would be a lot easier to sift it with the other dry ingredients.  I would try that next time.

The dough was quite thick, which makes me wonder if it would lend itself to piping.  These would make sweet little heart cakes if that worked.  My filling ended up runny and slightly separated, which was disappointing.  I filled the
cakes and put them in the refrigerator, hoping the filling would soften the cakes a little.  Otherwise, it's going to squirt out with the first bite.

Conclusion:  They weren't quite what I was wanting, but they were tasty.  It's nice having just that single little cake that's just enough.  Perhaps could have been a little more chocolatey.