Ah, there's nothing better than the aroma of a bacon whoopie pie in the early morning. This morning, apparently, was a very bright and red morning.
Let me just start off by saying I’m mad about bacon.
No, you don’t understand, like, mad-as-a-hatter mad about bacon. I’ve always loved bacon, but what started the actual madness was, during senior year of college, my lovely roommates and I received a gift of ten free pizzas, toppings unlimited, from Domino’s after I complained about some crappy service. Once we realized we could put anything, (anything!) on the pizzas and not get charged, we started asking for bacon with extra bacon on top. Which somehow morphed into me screaming BACON! from the bottom of my soul whenever we were in the mood for some pork-fat topped pizza.
Four years later, I’ve been through the bacon world and back again—bacon on burgers is a “duh”, but bacon brittle? I’ve tried it. Bacon jelly beans? Yep, thank you Tiki Chick! Bacon donut? Correct, and Nickel Diner provided. Bacon chocolate bar with pop rocks? Indeed, thanks to the Gastronomer. Bacon in almost every meal I eat out? Yes, sir. (I don’t eat out that often, so when I do, it has to be part of the meal, I mean really, COMON).
BACON!! Seriously. How could you not love it?
So I was asking myself the other day what I could possibly do to whoopie pies, one of my other favorite foods in this world, to make them more original, more…me. And low and behold, bacon whoopie pies were born.
I took my basic whoopie pie recipe—chocolate cookies, vanilla filling—and added crumbled bacon to the top. Yeah, it falls off a bit if you shake the whoopie pies, but I’m working on a solution. My hubby wanted the bacon actually in the filling, but I vetoed that for another day. Would it get soggy? Dunno, but you know for sure I’ll try it next time I makes these, which may be for an LA blogger bake sale. But more on that later…
I feel kinda weird giving a recipe for this, since I already posted my recipe for the whoopie pies, and hey, isn’t this just adding bacon on top before baking? The answer is yes, but since I only post once a month (if I posted more often, and therefore baked more often, I wouldn’t fit in my desk chair), I have to make this worthwhile.
Chocolate Bacon Whoopie Pies
Cookies:
3 slices bacon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
Filling:
1/3 cup marshmallow fluff
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. flour
2 T. milk
1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
Make bacon (yay!):
Over medium heat, cook bacon until crispy, but not burned or brown, flipping once to cook evenly. Remove and cool on paper towels. Once cool, finely dice into bacon-bit size, or whatever size you deem appropriate. (One inch squares? Sounds good to me!)
Make cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.
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.
Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets, or baking sheets lined with your favorite non-stick surface (Silpat is my fave). Sprinkle bacon bits over top of cookies, pressing them into the batter lightly. 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. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.
Make filling:
Combine all ingredients and beat very hard for several minutes at high speed.
Assemble:
To make the whoopie pies, spread a generous amount of filling on a completely cooled cookie. Top with another cookie. Wrap each pie individually in plastic wrap.
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