The Whoopie Pie is everyman’s snack cake: portable, cream-filled, requiring no special pans or equipment to make, and capable of appearing in a dizzying array of flavors. This is a truly versatile snack; the pie I’m going to make here is based on bananas and whole wheat, but once I got rolling in whoopie-world, it was hard to stop. I also came up with Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies, Maple Walnut Whoopies, and Gingerbread Whoopie Pies. The recipes section of the website also includes a Reverse Whoopie Pie (vanilla cookie, chocolate filling). Which, once you count PJ’s future (this coming Friday) and MJ’s recent posts, gives you a collection of more than half a dozen expressions of the genre in our recipe arsenal. You now have a full wardrobe of whoopie flavors at your fingertips. (more…)

Man, oh man, do I love strawberries! I love them fresh from the garden, or the farm stand. I love them in ice cream, milkshakes, dipped in chocolate. I love strawberry jam, strawberry milk, and those little strawberry candies with the syrup in the center. I’d eat them on a train, with a fox, in a box, here, there, everywhere. Okay, you get the picture. So when the call came out for a whoopie pie blogfest, berry whoopies were my first thought.

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How long since you’ve baked cupcakes? THAT long, eh? Isn’t it time to get back into the cupcake habit?

If you’ve ever had kids in the house, you’ve no doubt made cupcakes. Before school systems reacted to allergy issues by becoming super-strict about food brought in from outside, cupcakes were a must-have for class parties. Birthdays, Halloween, whatever the festive occasion, a couple of dozen decorated cupcakes were sure to appear.

And when you were really lucky, the Room Mother (yes, that’s what the mom officially in charge of classroom celebrations was called) would make cupcakes mounded with marshmallow-y 7-minute icing. (more…)

So, you think you don’t like whole grains? Wait! Stay with me here. If whole wheat flour comes immediately to mind when you think “whole grains”—well, think again. These cookies prove that whole grains can be absolutely invisible in your baking. (more…)

Breathes there a soul who doesn’t feel a visceral pull towards crusty bread?

Crusty white bread, in particular. Crusty white bread dipped in a really tasty olive oil. C’mon, admit it; your mouth is watering. Grab a virtual bread stick with me here, and let’s break bread together. (more…)

I have a confession to make. I’m a fool for melted cheese. The lava-flow of Gruyère oozing from a just-cut stuffed loaf; the stretchy strings of mozzarella dangling from a hot slice of pizza; warm Parmesan and fontina enclosed in cannelloni. I admit, they all make my heart beat just a little faster. (more…)

WARNING: Crumby cake. Not suitable for consumption while driving to work, walking around the house, or sitting at your computer. Post-consumption use of vacuum cleaner highly recommended.

Luckily, the food police have not yet, in their wisdom, chosen to add this warning to every bakery box of crumb cake. Though it would be appropriate, if not entirely welcome. (more…)

Spring in New England is famous for its ever-changing weather. Now that we’re beginning to feel like summer truly is going to come this year, we’re thinking more about picnics at the lake, the first summer berries, and ice cream at the Udder Delight on a hot afternoon.

But one thing we know is coming, though we never seem to plan for until it actually hits us, is the summer rainy day. (more…)

A Mother’s Day poem:

Some moms are cool,
some moms are sweet,
some moms are nutty, like me.
Bake this Creamy Coconut Pie for the mom in your life
who’s a little bit of all three!

Like many in my generation, food jingles are a part of my lexicon. I can’t have hot dogs without singing the Oscar Mayer wiener song, I always know how to spell bologna, and yes I have counted how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. (I’m not tellin’). (more…)