Wednesday 2 March 2016

Recipe: Red Velvet Heart Whoopie Pies

For our Love themed first event, I made red velvet whoopie pies.  I've never made whoopie pies before but decided it would be easier than trying to bake a red velvet cake and decorate it (which is just as well as someone else made an amazing one anyway!)  I found this recipe on a American blog and have listed the conversions I used below with the method as I made them and a few tips. 

This recipe was supposed to make 18 sandwiched pies but I must have made my template twice as big as I only had 18 hearts making 9 once they were assembled.




Ingredients:

280g all purpose flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
115g butter
215g light brown sugar (I ran out so used 129g with 40g of light muscovado sugar and the rest golden granulated!)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g buttermilk
1 bottle of red food colouring (I was hesitant to put so much in but after half a bottle the mixture was still a dirty red-brown so I did use 3/4 of a bottle!)

For the cream cheese filling:

230g cream cheese
70g butter
300g icing sugar (I had to add a lot more as it went very runny when I added the sugar to the cheese/butter mix!)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:




Preheat the oven to 190oC.  


Cut out a heart template and draw around it on baking paper to give you rows of evenly spaced hearts which fit your baking trays.  Place drawn side down on the trays.


Cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Blend in the vanilla.  In a separate bowl, sieve together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated.  Repeat with another third of the flour mixture and the remaining buttermilk and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients.  Do not over beat.  Blend in the food colouring.


Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip.  (I didn't have one of these so just used the bag without a tip).  Pipe the batter onto the parchment paper using the heart tracings as a guide.  (Mine were a bit of a mess but came out OK in the end!)




Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the tops are set, rotating the baking sheets halfway through.  (I'd stick to the lower end of timing as mine were a little dense and dry, although I have to admit, I'm not sure how they're supposed to be as I've never eaten them before!)  Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets at least 10 minutes, until they can be easily transferred to a cooling rack.  Repeat with any remaining batter.  Allow cookies to cool completely before proceeding.


To make the cream cheese icing, cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the icing sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.


Transfer the frosting to a clean pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip.  Pair the cookies up by shape and size.  Pipe frosting onto the flat-sided cookie of each pair, leaving the edges clear.  Sandwich the cookies together so the flat sides are facing each other and press gently to help the filling reach the edges.  


To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

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