Those beautiful visions of snackdom you see there are peanut butter whoopie pies with dark chocolate buttercream filling. My dad sent me an email yesterday with this link, making sure I was fully aware that it was National Peanut Butter Day. There’s a National Peanut Butter Day?! How exciting!!! Who knew?  So I gleefully hopped on the peanut butter celebration train and took a wild ride.

A wild ride that included literally whipping up ten whoopies in like 30 minutes flat, because I had had a “bad day” and I knew that peanut butter whoopies would most certainly make me feel better. Oh yeah, when I’m right, I’m right. These fluffy peanut butter snack-style cake/cookies smothered (I mean did you SEE how much CHOCOLATE butter cream I got in there?!) with chocolate in-between and then dunked in a cold glass of milk were pure bliss. Oh happy day.

When we dunked them, it created quite a tidal wave of milk, and my daughter half jokingly suggested that we should pour the milk into a cereal bowl to be able to properly dunk these monstrous whoopies without the slosh factor. Instead, we just pushed up our sleeves and got a little messy with it as puddles of milk dotted my kitchen table. We’re no sissies when it comes to our snack-a-tites (my dad’s made up word which is a merge of appetite and snack).

Naively, we all cut the whoopies in half and each of us chomped our half down in seconds and then, when no one was looking, one of us would swipe another half because we just couldn’t help ourselves.

When our “little” evening snack was over there were only six whoopies left. And this morning when I got up at my usual 5:00am…low and behold there were only five whoopies left.  I barely got to snap a shot of the two lone whoopies this afternoon. Outside our little family of four, only one very nice teacher, whose birthday was today, got to enjoy one of these whoopies.

And, as I write this post, exactly 24 hours after the whoopie pie baking occurred, they are ALL GONE.  If you need some peanut butter, chocolate frosted whoopie pies in your life, you’d better make these, but then expect them to disappear rather quickly I’m afraid. Sorry dad. 😦

For another and very wonderful version of peanut butter whoopies, go to Simple Math Bakery or if you feel like a devils food with marshmallow cream whoopie, go here.

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies with

Chocolate Butter Cream

Adapted from Whoopie Pies by Billingsley and Treadwell

Whoopie Pies
Makes 12 large.
1 3/4 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
4 T. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
4 T. vegetable shortening (I use all natural organic)
1/2 c. creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c. buttermilk

Chocolate Butter Cream
1 1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar
1/2 c. cocoa powder (best quality you can get your hands on…makes a huge difference)
1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 T. heavy cream (whipping)
1/2 t. salt

To make the whoopie pies: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Get out two cookie sheets and line with parchment paper or use nonstick spray coating on your whoopie pie pans (I mean, doesn’t EVERYBODY have whoopie pie pans?).

In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour through salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, shortening and brown sugar. Then add the peanut butter and vanilla. Combine on low speed and then add on egg at a time, beating with each addition on low speed.  Add 1/2 the dry ingredients and combine. Then add half of the buttermilk and mix together. Repeat until all of your ingredients are incorporated. Don’t over mix or your cookies will be tough.

Using a spoon or 2 tablespoon scoop, drop about 2 tablespoons of batter onto on of the prepared baking sheets and repeat, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for 15 minutes each or until the cakes begin to brown at the edges and are slightly firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool on the sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely. DO NOT FROST until they are completely cooled.

For the Butter Cream:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the powdered sugar, butter and cocoa, starting on low speed and increasing to medium speed until the mixture is crumbly.  Add the heavy cream, vanilla and salt and beat on high until smooth, about three minutes. The butter cream should be fairly stiff. You can always add more powdered sugar by 1/4 c. if the mixture is not stiff enough.

For easy frosting, scoop the frosting into a gallon sized ziploc bag (or pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip of any sort). Zip the bag shut and squish the frosting down to one bottom corner, rolling up the top of the excess bag in your hand.  Snip a 1/2 inch corner off one of the bottom corners and use the Ziploc bag as a piping bag. Pipe the frosting onto the flat side of one of the cookies for pretty cookies or just spread it on and don’t worry about beauty…after all it’s all going to taste the same, isn’t it? Then top with a remaining cookie (flat side down).  Now enjoy!