A mix of grapes can produce one interesting bottle
We are all familiar with wines classified by the grapes used to make them — merlot, cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese — and wines named by their place of origin — Rhine, Bordeaux — but what does a label that reads “red blend” mean?
As its name implies, it is a wine produced from the blending of two or more varietals of grapes. The blending of grapes is steeped in the history and tradition of European winemaking, dating to at least the 17th century with the origin of modern wines as we know them today. Bordeaux wines are classic blended wines, the reds consisting of combinations of merlot or cabernet sauvignon, along with cabernet franc and petit verdot added in smaller quantities, and the whites generally consisting of sauvignon blanc, to which semillon is added to temper the citric, and more specifically grapefruit, notes of the sauvignon blanc. These blends date to the 18th century.
The concept and development of single varietal wines in America in the second half of the 20th century migrated to Europe, South Africa and Australia. To the extreme, some vintners have produced single vineyard varietals to showcase the strengths they feel those particular vineyards have. This is all a matter of opinion, and all these wine-making styles are welcome to the table. In a good wine, the blending of varietals is intended not to cover the deficiencies of the “lead varietal” but to add to the complexity of the whole. The blending of varietals is both a science and an art. The vintner must know the strengths of the grapes before him, but the vintner must also be able to know when to blend — at the fermentation of the grapes, or after they have become wine. The vintner must also have a deft touch to know just how much of which varietal to add to create not only a drinkable wine but a memorable wine.
Our first blended wine is the 2017 Domaine du Grand Montmirail Gigondas ‘Le Coteau de Mon Rêve’ (at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally priced at $59.99, reduced to $25.99) is a blend that comes from the Rhone River Valley of Southern France. With a dark red color and nose of cherry and plum, this wine comes to the tongue with a full mouth feel of blackberry, plum and cherry, with notes of chocolate and a bit of leather. It is composed of 75 percent grenache, 20 percent syrah and 5 percent mourvèdre.
Denis Cheron acquired the Domaine du Grand Montmirail in the 1960s. The estate vineyards are 59 acres, set on terraces, planted in 50-year-old grenache vines, along with 20-year-old syrah and mourvèdre vines. This is a sophisticated, plush wine to be enjoyed with beef, lamb or game, now, or it can be cellared over the coming decade.
Our second blended wine is the 2016 Darcie Kent Vineyards Firepit Red (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally priced at $40.99, reduced to $19.99), a blend that comes from Livermore, just east of the San Francisco Bay. To the nose we sense raspberry, blackberry and cherry flavors that carry to the tongue with additional notes of oak and spices. Gentle tannins persist to a long finish of cassis and nutmeg. The oak nuances come from 24 months in new and used French oak barrels.
This is a blend of malbec, zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petite sirah and merlot. The proportions may vary from year to year. The zinfandel gives the wine its spiciness; the petite sirah its concentration of tannins. In fact, many makers of zinfandel add petite sirah to quiet the pepper in the zinfandel. It should be noted that the petite sirah grape has nothing in common with the syrah grape of our first wine!
So the blending of grapes and of the wine from those grapes opens new opportunities, new flavors, and other characteristics to be explored and savored. Try a blended wine with your next purchase. You will welcome the experience.
Featured photo: Gunner’s Daughter by Mast Landing Brewing Company. Courtesy photo.
Count on spring at this point, and you’ll only get your heart broken. There are at least two more blizzards and a lot of mud before spring gets here.
But there are hints. Whispers of hints. Whispers of innuendos of hints.
An afternoon where you can get the mail in shirtsleeves.
Old guys in the library parking lot talking about sugaring equipment.
Parts — only parts at this point, don’t get too excited — of your front steps are bare of snow and dry.
We’re still in the lion part of “In like a lion; out like a lamb.”
So I went looking for a lion-themed cocktail, and found something promising called a Lion’s Tail — a sort of a cross between a whiskey sour and a daiquiri, with front notes of bourbon and hope, and back notes of loneliness and bitter disappointment.
It’s good — very good — but with two small issues:
(1) It calls for bourbon, which is a good idea. Bourbon can be caramel-y and delicious and add a note of class to the proceedings. But I’m out of bourbon, and I can’t afford the good stuff, anyway. (You can fake your way through a lot of drinks with bottom-shelf rum or gin, but in my experience, most bourbon doesn’t get good until it is physically painful to pay for.)
(2) It calls for a specialty liqueur called allspice dram — a low-octane but very flavorful ingredient. As it turns out, I do have a bottle of it at the very back of my liquor cabinet — a relic of a short-lived but intense tiki phase I went through a year or so ago — but seriously, who else is going to have this kicking around?
So let’s see what we can do to replicate this with more proletarian ingredients:
Step 1 – Make the original cocktail with more-or-less original ingredients.
** Sound of clattering. “Mumble, mumble …” Measuring … **
“Google, how many dashes to fluid ounce?”
“Blah, blah … Was this answer helpful to you?”
“No! Not even a little bit! … Wait! I meant teaspoons….”
** More clattering, mumbling. Finally, the sound of a cocktail shaker, then pouring. **
Verdict: This is very good. The allspice is a big deal. Huh, go figure.
Step 2 – Replicating the recipe
Lion’s Butt Cocktail
Ingredients
Syrup – ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup water, 20 allspice berries, cracked in a mortar and pestle
2 ounces rye
¾ ounce allspice syrup
½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
¼ tsp. angostura bitters
Combine sugar, water and allspice berries to a very small saucepan and stir, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes. Strain and set aside.
Combine rye, allspice syrup, lime juice and bitters with ice in a cocktail shaker.
Shake thoroughly, until you hear the ice splintering.
Strain into a coupé glass.
Verdict: Very nice, indeed.
The original cocktail was heavy on the allspice, which totally works — especially this time of year. For a tropical spice, it suits winter weather very well. This — I won’t say “knockoff” — er, tribute version is a little more lime-forward and a skosh less sweet. (I’ve grown to really like rye. I’m not sure why that’s surprising to me, but it is. But then again, almost-spring is a surprising time of year.) The rye works well with the lime, which works well with the slightly spicy syrup. Could this be slightly cloying and too sweet? Yes, but it is saved by the bitters swooping in, wearing a cape, and deflecting the sweetness.
If you find yourself with a warm afternoon, you might want to call in sick to that last video conference of the day, drag an easy chair out to the deck, and drink three of these while listening to songs you listened to while making questionable decisions in your youth.
This week is Recipe No. 2 in my three-week biscotti series. Last week was all about maple syrup season; this week is an any-time-of-year recipe. The focal flavor in the biscotti is apricot. What makes it a year-round recipe is that it uses dried fruit.
You may think to yourself, “Let’s be creative and use fresh apricots!”
That is the one caveat to this recipe. You must use dried apricots. Biscotti are meant to be fairly dry cookies. If you use fresh fruit, it imparts too much moisture, which negatively affects the structure of the dough.
Speaking of the dryness of biscotti, I have met a person or two who prefers a slightly softer cookie. There is a simple way to remedy that. In the second phase of baking, when the biscotti are cut into slices, you can reduce the time by a minute or two per side. The only tricky part is to make sure the slices are fully baked. You want some softness, not raw treats.
Whether you like your biscotti traditionally dry or slightly softer, this recipe produces a nice apricot-centric snack.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on speed 2 for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and blend until fully combined. Stir diced apricots into dough. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 10″ x 3″ rectangle, using floured hands. Set loaves 4 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until the dough is set. Leaving the oven on, remove the biscotti loaves and cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet. Using a butcher knife, cut the loaves into diagonal slices, 1/2″ thick. Place the slices on the baking sheet with the cut sides down. Bake for 9 minutes. Turn over slices, and bake for 8 to 9 minutes more. Remove biscotti from the oven, and allow to cool completely on a baking rack. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl, and add milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until a thick glaze is formed. Coat each biscotti slice with glaze. Allow glaze to set, placing in the refrigerator to speed the set, if desired. Store in a sealed container.
Featured Photo: Frosted apricot biscotti. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.
Matt Romano of Manchester is the owner of Grace’s Kitchen Pizza Truck (find them on Facebook @graceskitchen603), which launched last fall. Named after Romano’s paternal grandmother, a major influence on his life and cooking, Grace’s Kitchen Pizza Truck features a menu of specialty pizzas available in a variety of flavors, as well as other items like hand-breaded chicken tenders, loaded Tater Tots, french fries and fried Oreos. The truck has parked at multiple spots across southern New Hampshire, like J&F Farms in Derry and Over the Moon Farmstead in Pittsfield, as well as in the Merrimack Valley and North Shore areas of Massachusetts. Romano is also booked to appear at several upcoming festivals this spring and summer, including Intown Concord’s annual Market Days Festival this June. Weekly posts on the truck’s whereabouts are updated on its Facebook page. Grace’s Kitchen Pizza Truck is also available to book for private events and parties.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
I would say a ladle. Especially with pizza, a ladle is very important when it comes to spreading on the sauces, and then I also use it for other menu items, whether it’s covering chicken tenders in Buffalo sauce or teriyaki sauce, or covering tater tots in cheese or gravy.
What would you have for your last meal?
My mom’s macaroni pie. It’s a recipe that’s been passed down a couple of generations, starting with my nana, down to my mom, and now I’ve been tweaking it.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
The Crazy Noodle [House] in Londonderry. The food there is awesome, it’s always so fresh, and the service is always great. … I take my niece and nephew there usually about once a month or so, and they love it.
What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your truck?
Jon Favreau. He had that movie, Chef, which revolves around a food truck, and he’s got a great TV show on Netflix too that’s based off of that.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
That would be one of our specialty pizzas, which is called the Mac 10. It’s a spinoff of a fast food favorite with a little bit of a kick. … We do 19-inch round pizzas and we sell them by the slice.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
I don’t know if it’s just me being new to the market, but it seems like food trucks are on fire this year. … The reason why I got into them was because I love how they give people a chance to really show off their menu to a large crowd in a small area. You go to a food truck festival and you can choose from 20 to 30 different types of food … and each chef is homing in on whatever they want and making it the best that it can possibly be.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I love making my own Greek marinated chicken and making some sort of kebab or healthy salad with it from scratch.
Easy chicken broccoli alfredo casserole Courtesy of Matt Romano of Grace’s Kitchen Pizza Truck
1 pound chicken breast, cut into one-inch pieces 2 broccoli crowns, chopped 1 pound penne or similar pasta 3 cups alfredo sauce 2 cups ricotta 2 cups mozzarella ¼ cup grated Parmesan Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Boil pasta to al dente. Saute chicken in a pan. Combine chicken, pasta, broccoli, alfredo sauce and ricotta in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add mixture to a casserole dish. Layer mozzarella and then Parmesan on top of the casserole. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top begins to brown.
• Make it maple: It’s New Hampshire Maple Month, and several farms and sugarhouses across the Granite State will once again be welcoming visitors for multiple weekends of tours, demonstrations, tastings and family activities, all revolving around local maple syrup production. At Ben’s Sugar Shack (83 Webster Hwy., Temple), for instance, maple sugaring tours start the weekend of Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free tours of the premises beginning every 15 minutes. Samples will be provided and items will be available inside the gift shop, including everything from maple syrup to maple cotton candy, fudge, roasted nuts, doughnuts and more. For a walk back through time, check out one of the sugar camp hiking tours being offered at Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road) on Saturdays, March 12, March 19 and March 26, at 1 p.m. Local land surveyor Mark Stevens will lead guests on a tour to the Shakers’ remote sugar camp, where they produced maple syrup each year. A full list of local sugarhouses participating in New Hampshire Maple Month (including New Hampshire Maple Weekend, set for Saturday, March 19, and Sunday, March 20) can be found on the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association website at nhmapleproducers.com.
• Bowlfuls of deliciousness: The ninth annual soup/chili/chowder cook-off is happening at Epsom Central School (282 Black Hall Road, Epsom) on Monday, March 7, from 5 to 7 p.m. Dozens of local soup, chili and chowder makers will participate in this friendly competition to raise money for various student activities at the school. Winners from each of the three categories receive a “Souper Bowl” trophy, and the top vote getter also wins a $50 Visa gift card. Two People’s Choice recipients from each category are awarded ribbons. The cost to attend the cook-off as a taster is $8 for adults and $6 for kids ages 10 and under, and includes access to up to 10 four-ounce sampling cups for adults and up to five samples for kids, along with sides of cornbread. Tickets will be sold at the door while supplies last. For more details, see “9th annual ECS Soup/Chili/Chowder Cook-off” on Facebook, or find our story about the event on page 25 of the Hippo’s Feb. 10 issue.
• New date for Amherst chili cook-off: A new date has been set for the Amherst Lions Club’s annual Fire & Ice chili cook-off and ice cream social, which was originally scheduled for Feb. 4 but postponed due to rising Covid numbers. Amherst Lion Joan Ferguson said the event will now be held on Friday, March 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Amherst Middle School (14 Cross Road). This will be the first in-person cook-off in two years following last year’s pre-recorded “virtual” event. Local restaurateurs and community members compete for the title of the best chili in one of three categories, and winners are awarded an engraved trophy and bragging rights for a year. Admission is $8 for adults and free for kids under 5, or $25 per family of four, with proceeds benefiting local charities selected by the Lions Club. Visit e-clubhouse.org/sites/amherstnh or follow them on Facebook @amherstnhlionsclub.
• Spring into healthy eating: Local Baskit (10 Ferry St., Suite 120A, Concord) is offering its next Instant Pot series, a seven-week program featuring various pressure cooker meals, from the week of March 7 through April 18. The theme is “spring and speed,” with quick and healthy options designed for those with busy and active lifestyles. The seven-week series includes all of the pre-measured (and, in some cases, pre-chopped) ingredients for each meal, along with complete instructions and a tested recipe serving three to five. Meals include teriyaki chicken, butternut squash farro risotto, lemon mustard chicken with potatoes, vegan white bean stew, cashew chicken, curried spring vegetable potato chaat, and fig and pig quiche. The cost is $64 for the full seven weeks. Dinners can be picked up at Local Baskit or can be delivered to select towns on Tuesdays or Wednesdays — visit localbaskit.com for the full list of drop-off locations.
• Tastes from the trucks: Tickets to this year’s Great Bay Food Truck Festival will go on sale beginning Monday, March 7. The second annual event will return for the first time since 2019 on Saturday, May 7, from noon to 5 p.m. at Stratham Hill Park (270 Portsmouth Ave., Stratham). The rain-or-shine festival is being organized by the Stratham Parks and Recreation department in conjunction with the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, and will feature dozens of food trucks and vendors, as well as lawn games, live music and more. Admission starts at $5, while all available foods and drinks are priced per item Visit greatbayfoodtruckfestival.com.
A deep dive into the nostalgic treat and its many sweet variations
It started as a way to raise money for her daughters’ synchronized swim teams — Heather Pfeifer of Goffstown made whoopie pies and presented them at bake sales to rave reviews. Eventually, she began serving pumpkin maple whoopie pies at the annual Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta; last year she sold out of nearly 1,000 before the event was over.
“People [in town] were going up to me and being like, ‘Are you the pumpkin maple whoopie pie lady?’ or they’d say, ‘They’re so good, where can I get them?’” Pfeifer said, “and I was just like, ‘Well I don’t know, I can bake some if you want.’ … I was cooking out of my kitchen for fun, but so many people were requesting where they could get them. So I started pursuing that.”
Pfeifer is now the owner and founder of Granite State Whoopie Pies and takes weekly pre-orders of the nostalgic treat in all kinds of flavors. She works out of the prep kitchen at White Birch Eatery in Goffstown, mostly on Mondays and Tuesdays when it’s closed for the day, and accepts requests to make any of her whoopie pies gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan.
Photo courtesy of Granite State Whoopie Pies of Goffstown.
With a regular offering of classic chocolate and vanilla or peanut butter, as well as two new special flavors released every two weeks, Pfeifer is proving that the whoopie pie can lend itself to all sorts of fun variations. Currently, she’s celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with chocolate and mint grasshopper and chocolate mocha Irish cream whoopie pies, while other flavors she’s previously dabbled in have included black forest, milk and cookies, red velvet, and peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes she’ll incorporate local ingredients — her maple bacon whoopie pie, for instance, featured bacon crumbles from Shaker Road Provisions of Loudon, while just last month she made chocolate milk stout whoopie pies using the Summit stout from Goffstown’s Mountain Base Brewery.
“I have a list of probably about 50 or 60 flavors … and more come to mind every day,” she said.
Similar whoopie pie flavor experimentations have been going on in the kitchen of Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop in Manchester. There you’ll find all kinds of whoopie pie flavors on the shelf, and you never know what bakers Laura and Adam Rexford will come up with next, like lemon poppy strawberry, Fireball whiskey pumpkin, tiramisu, pineapple upside-down cake and more.
“This year, people have been buying whoopie pies like crazy,” Laura Rexford said. “I can’t tell if it’s that we’re being more adventurous with flavors, or if people just want more comfort foods. … I feel like a whoopie pie is so much easier to eat than a cupcake, because of the distribution of cake to frosting. It’s almost like a sweet hamburger. The frosting is more contained.”
From the treat’s delicious creamy filling to the cakes surrounding it — which Pfeifer calls the “whookies,” or “whoopie cookies” — we take a look at how some local whoopie pies are made, and also attempt to trace back its origins as a New England staple.
Flavors and fillings
Today, the most common whoopie pie filling features a vanilla or marshmallow buttercream. Jordyn Hotchkiss of The Cat’s Pajamas, a home bakery based in Weare, said hers have a mixture of butter, confectioner’s sugar, marshmallow Fluff and a little bit of vanilla. The filling for her peanut butter whoopie pies uses those same ingredients, in addition to creamy peanut butter, kosher salt and milk — both flavors are stocked weekly at the Weare Real Food Farmers Market.
Pfeifer’s whoopie pies, meanwhile, have a roux-based filling, or a milk and flour thickener that’s mixed with granulated sugar, vanilla, butter, Crisco and a little bit of salt.
“I would equate the flavor … to almost like a Devil Dog,” she said. “The granulated sugar actually melts right into the roux … and what it does is it whips up so nice and fluffy, but it’s not overpoweringly sweet. … It creates this very light and creamy filling. It’s a more traditional way, but it’s not the most common way because it’s not the most shelf-stable.”
Pfeifer described her “whookies” as a thicker version of a muffin top, with a proper consistency resembling a brownie batter and a total baking time of around 10 to 12 minutes. Her roux is made first so that it has time to cool down once the cakes are baked.
Depending on the flavor she’s working with, additional ingredients are added to either the cakes or the filling. As for the diet-friendly options, she’ll substitute oat milk and plant-based butter for the dairy-free pies, and Bob’s Red Mill brand 1-to-1 flour blend for the gluten-free pies.
Photo courtesy of Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop in Manchester.
At Angela’s, classic chocolate and vanilla or peanut butter whoopie pies are always in stock, each of which is made with a house buttercream recipe. Those are sold individually, or you can try one of the shop’s themed duo packs — last month’s, dubbed “The Romance Package,” featured candied maple bacon and raspberry Frangelico-flavored whoopie pies. Currently available is the “Luck of the Irish” whoopie pie duo, with crème de menthe and milk chocolate Irish cream flavors. The shop also puts out bite-sized miniature whoopie pies in an assortment of flavors, sold in packs of a dozen each.
“Those have had a huge response,” Rexford said. “I think people feel a little less guilty about the mini whoopie pies, because you can just pop them in your mouth. They’re like little Munchkins.”
In Hooksett, The Cake Fairy has been baking whoopie pies since before it even had a storefront, back when it had a booth at the Deerfield Fair, manager Brianna Lucciano said.
“My mom would make these behemoth whoopie pies, like the size of a man’s hand, and people would walk around the fair with them, and others would say, ‘Oh, my gosh, where did you get that?’” she said. “It got to the point where we’d get a delivery, and people were just taking them out of the box because we couldn’t even get them on the table fast enough.”
They no longer sell at the fair, but you can still get that familiar gigantic “Deerfielder” whoopie pie at the bakery, along with a few smaller sizes. In addition to the classic, there’s a Funny Bone whoopie pie with a chocolate cake and peanut butter filling, and a Boston cream whoopie pie with a vanilla cake, chocolate ganache and a custard buttercream.
Photo courtesy of The Cannoli Stop at The Candy Shop in Concord.
At The Cannoli Stop at The Candy Shop in Concord, owner Melinda Sergi has a regular assortment of fillings for her whoopie pies, from vanilla or chocolate cream to raspberry, peanut butter or pistachio. But she also takes things a step further by making whoopie pies with any one of the shop’s more than 50 flavors of cannoli fillings — those options run the gamut from cake batter and cookie dough to red velvet, bubble gum, cotton candy, salted caramel and more.
Lemon cake whoopie pies are part of the regular lineup of products at Fabrizia Lemon Baking Co., an online-only bakery based in Salem featuring uniquely crafted limoncello-infused treats. Also in Salem, Chatila’s Sugar Free Bakery offers an assortment of sugar-free and dairy-free whoopie pie flavors using a fluffy French creme-based filling.
Competing claims
Multiple U.S. states claim to be the birthplace of the original whoopie pie. Two of those states in particular — Pennsylvania and Maine — are notably linked by their Amish heritage, Pfeifer said.
While there are several theories, according to at least one edition of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, an encyclopedia edited by Andrew F. Smith and published by Oxford University Press, it’s generally accepted that the first whoopie pie originated around the era of the Great Depression. The story goes that the cakes were made from a leftover batter, contributor Susan McLellan Plaisted writes, and, according to Amish legend, kids would find the cream-filled treats in their lunch bags and yell “whoopie!” with delight, giving them their name.
A bakery in Lewiston, Maine, called Labadie’s claims to be “the home of Maine’s first whoopie pie,” with a recipe dating back to 1925, according to its website. Another possible clue into how the treat became so popular in New England involves the Massachusetts-based Durkee Mower Co., the manufacturer of marshmallow Fluff. According to its website, an episode of a 1930s weekly radio show called “Flufferettes” promoted The Yummy Book, a book of various recipes using Fluff as the cornerstone ingredient — one of those was, of course, for whoopie pies.
Photo courtesy of Sully’s Superette in Allenstown.
But who exactly was the first to create the sweet treat, and where, is likely lost to history.
“It’s like saying who made pizza first,” Lucciano said. “In reality, it’s a form of chocolate cake and a delicious filling. We all had the same ingredients, but whose grandmother did it first?”
Both Pennsylvania and Maine hold annual whoopie pie festivals — Maine’s is set to return on June 25 to the town of Dover-Foxcroft, featuring samples from various bakers across the state, while Pennsylvania’s is held at the Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn in Lancaster County in September. Since 2011, the whoopie pie has been honored as Maine’s official “state treat.”
While there are no large whoopie pie-centered festivals in the Granite State, Pfeifer does have a few upcoming local appearances where you can go to enjoy her whoopie pies. Find her at Mountain Base Brewery on Thursday, March 17, from 4 to 8 p.m., serving her classic, peanut butter, grasshopper and Irish cream flavors. Then on Saturday, March 19, she’ll be participating in the Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to noon. More events are in the works for the coming weeks and months.
Whoopie pies at home
A simple whoopie pie recipe uses ingredients easily within reach in your kitchen.
“It’s a process … because you have the two separate parts of it,” Hotchkiss said. “I use Crisco, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and a little bit of salt, and that’s just for the cake itself. … The oven actually gets preheated to 425, so it’s a bit of a hotter bake, and they only have to bake for about 10 minutes each.”
When baking them at home, Hotchkiss said, it’s important to make sure the cakes are spaced out enough so that they don’t spread into each other. She places either a silicone baking sheet or a piece of parchment paper on the baking pan to prevent sticking and help with their removal.
“Generally, once I get the cake part of it all done, I let them cool for a few minutes and then I start with my filling,” she said, “because they need to be fully cooled before you put them together; otherwise the filling will just start to melt. … Personally, I love having Fluff in them.”
Rather than spreading the filling over both cake halves, Hotchkiss said she likes to scoop it on just one and pushes the two parts together to finish the whoopie pie.
“It just makes for a good ratio, in my opinion,” she said. “Everyone has their own viewpoint of how much cream to cake there should be … but for the most part they’re relatively even.”
The pies remain fresh when wrapped for roughly a week, or you can freeze them.
“A friend of mine actually discovered that they freeze really well, so that was good to find out,” Hotchkiss said. “So if you don’t want to eat them right away, they can go in the freezer and then, when you’re ready to eat it, it will thaw out no problem.”
Where to get whoopie pies
Check out this list of local bakeries, shops, homestead bakers and other businesses offering homemade whoopie pies, from the classic chocolate and vanilla or peanut butter to all kinds of unique flavors. Some have them on hand all the time, while others will rotate their whoopie pies out with other pastries and treats from their bakery case — be sure to contact each establishment directly for the most up-to-date availability on their products.
• Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 625-9544, angelaspastaandcheese.com) offers both large-sized whoopie pies and mini pies that are sold by the dozen, and you never know which flavors bakers Laura and Adam Rexford will be working on next. Classic and peanut butter are usually available, while other options have included lemon poppy strawberry, Fireball whiskey pumpkin, tiramisu, pineapple upside-down cake and more. Angela’s has also recently begun offering themed duo packages of whoopie pies — the current one available, a St. Patrick’s Day-themed duo called “Luck of the Irish,” features crème de menthe and milk chocolate Irish cream flavors.
• Baked Downtown Cafe & Bakery (1015 Elm St., Manchester, 606-1969; 249 Sheep Davis Road, Concord, 856-8871; bakeddowntown.com) offers classic, peanut butter and seasonal whoopie pie flavors.
• The Bakeshop on Kelley Street (171 Kelley St., Manchester, 624-3500, thebakeshoponkelleystreet.com) offers classic and brown sugar maple whoopie pies, as well as several specialty flavors throughout the year, like pumpkin, red velvet, pineapple upside-down cake and a Bailey’s-filled chocolate Guinness whoopie pie for St. Patrick’s Day.
• Bearded Baking Co. (819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com) offers multiple sweets treats out of its bakery case, usually including whoopie pies.
• Benson’s Bakery & Cafe (203 Central St., Hudson, 718-8683, bensonsbakeryandcafe.com) offers classic whoopie pies, in addition to seasonal specials for flavors.
• Bite Me Kupcakez (4 Mound Court, Merrimack, 674-4459, bitemekupcakez.com) has a variety of pastries and sweet treats out of its bakery case, usually including whoopie pies.
• The Black Forest Cafe & Bakery (212 Route 101, Amherst, 672-0500, theblackforestcafe.com) offers classic whoopie pies, as well as seasonal specials.
• Buckley’s Bakery & Cafe (436 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 262-5929; 9 Market Place, Hollis, 465-5522; buckleysbakerycafe.com) offers whoopie pies with whipped marshmallow frosting at both locations.
• The Cake Fairy (114 Londonderry Turnpike, Hooksett, 518-8733, cakefairynh.com) offers whoopie pies in a variety of flavors, like classic, Funny Bone, Boston cream and more, all in several sizes. The “Deerfielder” size is a throwback to the bakers’ days selling oversized whoopie pies at the Deerfield Fair, manager Brianna Lucciano said.
• Candia First Stoppe Country Store (285 Old Candia Road, Candia, 483-4888, candiafirststop.com) offers classic whoopie pies in small and medium sizes, as well as larger whoopie pies that are made to order.
• The Cannoli Stop at The Candy Shop (239 Loudon Road, Concord, 224-9706, thecannolistop.com) offers whoopie pies with a variety of fillings, from vanilla or chocolate cream to raspberry, peanut butter or pistachio. You can also order whoopie pies with any one of the shop’s more than 50 cannoli fillings, like cookie dough, red velvet or salted caramel.
• The Cat’s Pajamas (available at the Weare Real Food Farmers Market, 65 N. Stark Hwy., Weare, [email protected], and on Facebook @catspajamasnh) offers classic and peanut butter whoopie pies, as well as a pumpkin whoopie pie that’s available seasonally.
• Chatila’s Sugar Free Bakery (380 S. Broadway, Salem, 898-5459, sugarfreebakery.net) has several sugar-free whoopie pie options, like classic, pumpkin spice, red velvet and more.
• Crosby Bakery (51 E. Pearl St., Nashua, 882-1851, crosbybakerynh.com) has whoopie pies available most days, as part of its lineup of freshly baked pastries and sweet treats.
• The Crust and Crumb Baking Co. (126 N. Main St., Concord, 219-0763, thecrustandcrumb.com) usually offers three or four whoopie pie flavors to choose from daily, like classic and salted caramel, as well as a blueberry cake with lemon filling and a raspberry cake with coconut filling. Ice cream-filled whoopie pies are also available seasonally.
• Dulces Bakery (87 Amherst St., Manchester, 606-2613, find them on Facebook @dulcesbakerynh) offers multiple options on its pastry menu, usually including whoopie pies.
• Duston’s Bakery & Deli (153 Portland Ave., Dover, 742-2506, dustonsmarket.com) has classic whoopie pies, as well as pumpkin seasonally, in addition to a few other flavors.
• Fabrizia Lemon Baking Co. (Salem, fabrizialemonbakingcompany.com) offers lemon cake whoopie pies, baked with Fabrizia Spirits limoncello worked into the batter. They’re wrapped two per pack and available for online ordering only.
• Frederick’s Pastries (109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725; 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 647-2253; pastry.net) offers several flavors of whoopie pies, including dark chocolate and chocolate chunk cookie. Miniature whoopie pies are also available.
• Good to the Last Krumb (Hudson, find them on Facebook @goodtothelastkrumbnh) offers multiple sweet treats available for pre-order, including whoopie pies. They can also usually be found at Mack’s Apples (230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry) and Estey’s Country Store (9 Old Nashua Road, Londonderry).
• Granite State Whoopie Pies (Goffstown, granitestatewhoopiepies.com) offers classic and peanut butter whoopie pies, as well as a selection of two specialty flavors that rotate out every two weeks, available for pre-order by the dozen as regular or miniature sizes. Currently available are chocolate and mint grasshopper and chocolate mocha Irish cream whoopie pies. Any flavor can also be made gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan. Weekly orders are due by Friday for pickup the following Wednesday through Saturday, between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., at White Birch Eatery (571 Mast Road, Goffstown). Single-serve pies are also available for purchase there, as well as at Little Red Hen Farm & Homestead (85 Norris Road, Pittsfield). Find owner and founder Heather Pfeifer with her whoopie pies at Mountain Base Brewery (553 Mast Road, Goffstown) on Thursday, March 17, from 4 to 8 p.m., and at the Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market (7 Eagle Square) on Saturday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to noon.
• Harvey’s Bakery and Coffee Shop (376 Central Ave., Dover, 742-6029, harveysbakery.com) offers several specialty pastries and sweet treats, including whoopie pies.
• It’s All Good in the Kitchen (184 N. Broadway, Salem, 458-7434, itsallgoodgf.com) is a specialty gluten-free bakery offering a wide array of treats, usually including whoopie pies.
• Just Like Mom’s Pastries (353 Riverdale Road, Weare, 529-6667, justlikemomspastries.com) offers dozens of traditional and specialty whoopie pie flavors and flavor combinations.
• Klemm’s Bakery (29 Indian Rock Road, Windham, 437-8810, klemmsbakery.com) offers a wide array of pastries and sweet treats daily, usually including whoopie pies.
• Purple Finch Cafe (124 S. River Road, Bedford, 232-1953, purplefinchcafe.com) offers several specialty flavors of whoopie pies that are usually rotated out, from chocolate chip with vanilla to red velvet, maple cream and more.
• The Red Arrow Diner (61 Lowell St., Manchester, 626-1118; 112 Loudon Road, Concord, 415-0444; 137 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 552-3091; 149 Daniel Webster Hwy., Nashua, 204-5088; redarrowdiner.com) offers classic whoopie pies, as well as red velvet and pumpkin whoopie pies that are available seasonally.
• The Red Blazer Restaurant & Pub (72 Manchester St., Concord, 224-4101, theredblazer.com) offers both large and small whoopie pies on its dessert menu, as well as a whoopie pie cake on its bakery menu, featuring chocolate cake layered with the classic whoopie pie filling and finished with chocolate ganache and a white chocolate drizzle.
• Sully’s Superette (39 Allenstown Road, Allenstown, 485-9955; 10 N. Mast St., Goffstown, 497-8176; sullyssuperette.com) offers classic whoopie pies at both locations.
• Wild Orchid Bakery (836 Elm St., Manchester, 935-7338, wildorchidbakery.com) has a rotating selection of pastries and sweet treats out of its bakery case, including whoopie pies.
• Zizza Authentic Pizzeria (653 Elm St., Milford, 249-5767, zizzapizza.com) offers multiple flavors of whoopie pies on its dessert menu.
Featured photo: Funny Bone whoopie pies from The Cake Fairy in Hooksett. Courtesy photo.
