I'm a die-hard baking fan. Just because it's summer, 90 degrees outside, and 100% humidity does not mean I won't turn on the oven just to make some scrumptious dessert. However, I will admit that baking in that heat is not my favorite setting (see previous post for my fermenting Blueberry Buckle). As soon as that first cold day of fall comes around, I get the urge to bake. Something jam-packed with cinnamon, or apples, or pumpkin, or brown sugar, or streusel topping. Anything that could be served warm with a healthy serving of cold vanilla ice cream on top. These Cinnabun Bars fit just the specifications to indulge in my fall baking obsession. They're made with lots of cinnamon, caramel ice cream topping, and brown sugar. I also added chocolate chips since the original recipe called for chopped pecans and nuts of any type, are not my cup of tea. Although I do enjoy honey-roasted peanuts even though I don't like honey or peanuts... Anyway, I usually end up substituting various types of nuts with chocolate chips and really, let's face it, chocolate trumps nuts on the indulgence meter.
However you spell them, or whatever you call them, Whoopie Pies are an amazing concoction in the world of cookies. And I'll admit it, I actually am not a cookie fan (gasp!). I just don't find them very appealing since one cookie has about as many calories as something more "substantial" like a dessert bar, etc. And if I can eat a bigger dessert for the same amount of calories, I will eagerly chose the larger option. So due to my aversion to eating cookies, I usually don't bake them that often, unless I find some decadent creation like these pumpkin whoopie pies which I knew would fulfill my craving for fall baking!
Now, I was always under the assumption that whoopie pies and sandwich cookies were one and the same. Two cookies stuck together with some delicious filling ranging from cream cheese frosting, various jams, chocolate, peanut butter, you name it. However, I recently learned that in order for your cookie sandwich to be an official "whoopie pie", it requires a marshmallow based filling. My pumpkin whoopie pies used a kind of marshmallow frosting filling, which was amazing, but I've also seen the more traditional version from Food Network that just melts large marshmallows between the two cookies. Personally, for me, I love overly sweet desserts and think thick, creamy, sugary frosting, is divine, so frosting has my vote, but chose whatever fits your taste buds. I also think that for storage, frosting holds up better for leftovers than just plain marshmallows, which tend to taste best straight out of the oven and usually end up being a big sticky mess if you try to re-heat them or something like that. But that may just be my taste for sickening sweet desserts taking over...
So, my husband is a huge Star Wars fan and when I saw these cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma, I knew I had to get them! They sat in my cabinets for a little while but I decided to finally bust them out when my husband was going away for a "guy's weekend" with his best friend. I thought it would be a perfect surprise and a perfect treat for their Comi-Con weekend.
I ended up just using the cookie recipe included in the box since I was worried that other recipes would rise too much in the oven and then the decorative indentations would disappear. Just a heads up that the recipe calls for the dough to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, so you might want to know that before you start the baking process. I did not read through the entire recipe before I began, so the cookies took a little longer than I expected. The dough is great though because not only does it taste wonderful, but it is not overly sticky and I did not have any problems getting the cookies to release from the cookie cutters.
As for the finishing touches, my best friend for years (who I consider more like my own sister), made homemade icing in a variety of colors and hand frosted each of them to bring out the cookie indentations. They looked absolutely fantastic! Since I had not planned that far ahead (I decided to make these morning of) and did not have that much time before my husband arrived home from work, I ended up melting some chocolate chips and shortening in a shallow pan and dipping the backs of each of the cookies in it. It was a great addition to the sugar cookies since you could still see all the indentations on the tops and the chocolate added some extra flavor overall. I kept my cookies in the fridge to keep the chocolate from melting since it was about 90 degrees with 90% humidity that week where I was.
Overall, my husband was extremely surprised and both he and his friend thought they tasted "out of this world"! :-)
