Whoope Pies, attempt 1

I've had a, rather reluctant, love affair with macarons for a while now. This is not something I'm proud of. Everything having to do with macarons is so ridiculous. They are ridiculously coloured, ridiculously pricey and ridiculously hip. But still, with a black cup of coffee, a sweet little something to go with it, I can't think of anything better than a macaron.

I've been considering making them at home, but since everybody says they are so hard to get right, I haven't bothered. But then I heard of Whoopies. A distant American relative of the macarons.  Two soft cookies slammed together with a generous slab of creamy goodness in between. Bigger and not with the same level of sophistication (the way a lot American relatives tend come across) but more easygoing and great tasting nonetheless.

So I got Sara Billingsley and Amy Treadwells book "Whoopie Pies" to get myself aquinted to the subject. It's an inspiring little book.  There are 21 recipes for different cookies to use and 29 recipes for fillings. They are all listed separately, with some good combos listed, but mostly the user is encouraged to mix and match on her own. I really like that. The only objection I have is that the fillings are way too sweet for me, I think that's another Europe/American thing. But, hey, it the filling gets too sweet, just add more of everything else :)

The recipe we tried were lemon whoopies with chocolate buttercream filling. Not that I thought it would make the best combo, the choice was solely based on my sons whims at the time. But it worked out fine in the end. The cookies are a bit bigger and chunkier than intended (compare with the cover of the book above), while juggling two kids and baking at the same time I tend to take whatever short cuts there are... I'll definitely be refining the recipes to get something that works for European palates as well, cutting the sugar and adding more of whatever flavouring that seems like a good idea to use.