Makes about a dozen whoopie pies
When we drove around New England with our daughter, doing potluck events in nearly every state, we saw signs for a treat we don’t seem to eat in the Pacific Northwest: whoopie pies! These sweet little cake-like cookies (mostly chocolate, it seemed) sandwiched a creamy filling (marshmallow crème, mostly). Think soft ice cream sandwich, but warm and without ice cream. In Maine, where whoopie pies are the official state treat, every gas station and small store sold them, along with lobster rolls. (Mainers lay claim to the invention of the whoopie pie, but the folks in Pennsylvania beg to disagree. They claim that it’s an Amish treat, and when hard-working farmers opened their lunch boxes and found this sweet, they all shouted “Whoopie!”) We gluten-free folks can have our whoopie pies easily. I’d venture to say that these are better than the ones you’d buy in a gas station anyway. Instead of marshmallow crème in the middle, we use cream cheese frosting, inspired by the recipe by our talented friend Tara Barker, a gluten-free pastry chef who lives in Maine.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour blend, cacao powder, baking powder, and salt.
Mix the wet ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the coconut oil and sugar. Mix until they are light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time, waiting until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the vanilla and finish mixing.
Finish the dough. With the mixer running, add half the flour mixture, then the coconut milk, then the remaining flour mix. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The final dough should be like a thick cake batter.
Chill the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
Prepare to bake. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies. Gather a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie and drop it onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space around each cookie. Put the baking sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Bake the cookies until the tops of the cookies spring back slightly when touched, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking time. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then gently move them to a wire rack. Continue baking the rest of the cookies in this manner.
Fill the whoopie pies. When the cookies are entirely cooled, spread a thick layer of cream cheese frosting on the flat side of one cookie, then top with another cookie. Whoopie! You just made a whoopie pie.