Going bananas! (for Banana Whoopie Pies!!)

A new way to have a scrumptious banana?

Today I bring you an incredibly delicious recipe! I was given this recipe after I was sent a picture of Banana Whoopie Pies through a text. I couldn't help but kind of loose my mind when I saw the picture. The original recipe, which I didn't change much, was from none other than Martha Stewart. I have to give a HUGE thank you to Theo, an amazing friend and artist (check out some of his work here), who gave me this recipe. I've been trying to be patient and wait for those bananas to ripen! Not an easy task when I knew what they were going to become. I ended up putting them in a brown paper bag to speed up the, what seemed like grueling, task of ripening bananas!

My original plan was to bake them right after work along with a cake for an order. That plan was changed, which I was somewhat secretly hopping for, due to the weather. I'm sure there are a few others out there that know what I'm talking about. SNOW! I must say as much as I hate the snow, I've enjoyed the day at home. Even if my day off as been spent working away in the kitchen, I've enjoyed every minute of it.

So before I made these, since it's been a few days in the making, I kinda told a few people. One thing I still haven't learned is to NOT blab about what I'm going to be cooking up. With that said, I've decided to be very nice! I ended up making 3, yes 3, batches of these lovely whoopie pies and I'll be taking them to work. That is assuming I'll be able to make it in tomorrow, unfortunately I think that's going to be possible. 

A few notes on the changes I made:

Filling: 

I decided to not go with Martha's filling on this because I like BUTTER in my cream cheese filling. :) Who doesn't love BUTTER?

When I first saw these whoopie pies I thought they would have some kinda of spice. They made me think of Banana Bread and I like to add cinnamon to my Banana Bread. What can I say? I like a little spice now and then. :) So, I decided that I wouldn't add any spice to the whoopie pies themselves, but that I would spice up the filling. I did half of the pies filled with regular Cream Cheese Frosting and the other half with spiced Cream Cheese Frosting.

Flavor: 

I also thought that the recipe just didn't have enough banana so I added a 1/4 and took a 1/4 of the sour cream out. Just a small substitution for a little more flavor! 

I also added 1/2 teaspoon more vanilla. 

Supplies:

Make sure to have enough parchment paper to change it after each bake. I used 4 baking sheets so I could constantly have them in the oven. I find it best to not use hot pans for fresh batter. After each pan cooled I pulled the paper right off with the pies still on them. You could reuse the papers, but I wouldn't use each sheet more than twice.

And finally...La scoop! According to Martha's recipe you're supposed to put the batter in pastry bags and then pipe each pie onto the pan. Call me lazy, but I just used a scoop. I think mine is a tablespoon size scoop. It's also a lot less messy to just use a scoop!

That's all for now! Happy baking!

Banana Whoopie Pies     [Printable Recipe]

slightly adapted from Banana Whoopie Pies - Martha Stewart Recipes 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup over ripe and mashed banana

1/4 cup sour cream

1 recipe Cream Cheese Frosting 

(I also used Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light a creamy. Around 3 minutes. 
3. While the butter/sugar mixture is beating sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Combine mashed bananas and sour cream in a bowl.
5. Add the egg and 1 tsp vanilla to the butter/sugar mixture.
6. Add the banana/sour cream mixture in 2 additions, alternately with the flour mixture just until combined. 
7. Scoop batter onto prepared cookie sheets leaving about 2 inches between.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes until edges are golden brown. I switched over racks about half way through baking.
9. Cool completely.
10. After cool, assemble to cookies with the cream cheese filling. Enjoy!

Note:

I made the filling about halfway through the baking that way I could stick it back in the refrigerator until I was ready to assemble the pies.