Newton at the Farmers' Market: Almond Whoopie Pies with Lemon Buttercream and Blueberries

Throughout the summer and early fall, I will be spotlighting various merchants at the and t and sharing recipes prepared with their produce and products.

Merchant: Kelly’s Farm, Upton

What they sell: Enormous radishes, blueberries, raspberries, a variety of lettuces, corn, peaches, beets, green beans, scallions, zucchini and cousa squashes.

Coming soon: More peaches, blueberries and raspberries; tomatoes, more corn, swiss chard, more zucchini, summer squash.

What they say: “I take [the market] very personally, because I really love MY customers. They come with anticipation and they prepare for the market, so I always hope we have what they’re looking for. Really, it’s all from the heart.” – Mary Owanesian (who helps run the stand; the farmer is Richard Kelly)

(Makes approximately 15 large whoopie pies)

I was inspired to attempt whoopie pies by a recipe from Katie Kimball, the extraordinarily creative pastry chef at in Cambridge. Since she is a professional pastry chef and baking anything but simple cookies remains one of my challenges, for the ‘whoopie’ part of the recipe I did some mashing up of Katie’s recipe with one from the folks at King Arthur flour. After an “experimental” batch (see picture) and some more tinkering, I was very happy with the results.

INGREDIENTS:

Blueberry Filling:

• 2 pints blueberries, rinsed, all stems removed
• 1/4 cup sugar

Almond Whoopie Pies:

• 2 sticks of butter
 at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 1 tablespoon almond extract
 (NOT flavoring)
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract (NOT flavoring)
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cup buttermilk

Lemon Frosting:

• 1 stick of butter, at room temperature
• 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• as much as ¼ cup heavy cream 

DIRECTIONS:

For the blueberry filling:

1. In a large bowl, use the back and tines of a fork to smash blueberries until they are somewhat broken up but not completely unrecognizable as fresh fruit.
2. Add sugar and allow berries to macerate (break down) for 2 hours (or as much as overnight).

For the whoopie pies:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly.
3. Add vanilla and almond extracts and mix again.
4. Into another large bowl, sift cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt (dry ingredients)
5. Alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry, and mix thoroughly between each addition.
6. Cover bowl of batter with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for an hour or two.
7. Preheat oven to 375° and line THREE or FOUR cookie sheets with parchment paper (this will depend on the size of your cookie sheets).
8. Using a small ice cream scoop or large table spoon, drop spoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheets. Make sure to leave at least an inch and a half between each drop or your ‘whoopies’ will spread into each other. NOTE: You can fill the third (and fourth) cookie sheet(s) while the first two are baking.
9. Bake for 12–14 minutes or until just barely golden brown on the top.

10.  Set aside to cool by first loosening ‘whoopies’ from parchment, then setting cookie sheets on wire racks

11.  DO NOT fill until ‘whoopies’ are completely cooled or your filling will ooze.

For the lemon frosting:

1. In a large bowl (using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer), cream butter and sugar.
2. Add vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice and beat until fully blended and smooth.
3. Add heavy cream and continue beating until frosting is light and fluffy.
4. Cover and refrigerate frosting for a half-hour or so.

To assemble whoopie pies:

1. Flip the ‘whoopies’ on their backs so that they are flat side up.
2. Using a spoon, put a dollop of the lemon frosting on the flat side of each ‘whoopie’ and spread it around.
3. Put a spoonful of the blueberry filling on half of the ‘whoopies,’ leaving the other ones with just frosting.
4. Put one of the frosting-only ‘whoopies’ on top of the blueberry ones and gently press down (try to pair halves of similar sizes).
5. Serve on a plate or wrapped in a napkin or paper towel as these are QUITE messy.
6. If you are not going to eat all of the whoopie pies within a few hours, they should be stored in the refrigerator. The ‘whoopies’ will lose some of their trademark cake-iness, but they will still taste great.