Whoop, whoop!! The Great Whoopie Pie Experiment

I've been wanting to try making whoopie pies for a while now. Actually, I only just recently found out what these yummy little goodies were named. They are basically two cake cookies with icing in the middle. Sounds so simple, looks so decadent. I chose to make mine with a pumpkin spiced cake batter. I also love chocolate so of course I had to throw in some milk chocolate chips. And I chopped some pecans to roll the edges.

My first experiment with these are not quite the result I saw in my head when dreaming of these every night. But they turned out good enough to take into work and share. Believe me, when you are involved in the study of "experimental culinary goodness" there are more than a few recipes that lack a little, well, goodness. Those less than triumphal results usually stay at home on the kitchen counter or in the fridge until they have sufficiently ripened to the point that I no longer feel guilty about dumping them in the garbage.

Not a bad first attempt, but a little more filling will help.

In the Great Whoopie Pie Experiment of June 2008, I accidentally discovered a twist that I had not expected, but like so much more than the whoopie in my dreams. First, since this first batch was a test, I made them with a little less icing than normal. I just wanted to make sure that I has the taste down, I could always add as much icing as I wanted for the final version. But testing recipes can add a lot of "real estate" to my butt in a very short time. For this reason, I also made most of them in a mini version. The minis were cute and just needed a little less time in the oven, although they didn't puff up as much as the larger version. The lack of icing, however, does make it difficult to roll the edges in the pecans because there is not much for the nuts to stick to.

I had a little cream cheese icing left over from my big giant Red Velvet Mega Cupcake. Once the icing was gone, I had to improvise. I checked around the kitchen for inspiration. On the TV in the other room, the opening melody of Giada DeLaurentis' "Everyday Italian" began to chime out and inspiration struck. Giada, although not in this episode, often makes the most devilish desserts with Nutella. Many times I have had to wipe the drool from my chin as I watch her make something like a Nutella Pizza or Fried Ravioli with Nutella Filling. And lo, up on the top shelf of my all too tiny kitchen cabinet was a lone jar of the chocolate and hazelnut ambrosia of the gods.

Nutella to the rescue!

My mini, flat whoopies were saved. Adding the Nutella in the middle was genius. That wonderful pumpkin spice was perfectly complimented and the pecans stuck like glue in the gooey goodness. When I make these for the final testing, they will definitely have the Nutella. Silly me... cream cheese icing, what was I thinking?!

Mini Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies With Nutella Filling and Pecans