Monday 6 February 2017

Genius Hour: Week 3

Football Whoopie Pies 


In spirit of the Super Bowl, I decided to make football whoopie pies for my genius hour project this week! When looking at the recipe, I thought they looked relatively easy to make which I was excited about, seeing as I had the added pressure of bringing this dessert to a Super Bowl party. However, once I started to make them I realized they were a little more challenging than I had anticipated. 

This recipe had two parts: the football whoopie pies and the frosting. I started out making the whoopie pies so that they would have time to cool before I frosted them. 



Ingredients: Football Whoopie Pies  

6 tablespoons shortening 
1 cup sugar 
1 large egg
1 cup milk 
5 tablespoons cocoa 
2 1/4 cups flour  
1 teaspoon baking soda 
2 teaspoons vanilla 
1/2 teaspoon salt 

Instructions: Football Whoopie Pies 


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together shortening and sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla, continue beating until combined. 

3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. 

4. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture adding milk until combined. 

5. Using an ice cream scoop drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets. Use a butter knife to help create points on either side creating the shape of a football. 

6. Bake 10-12 minutes then let cool before frosting. 

Ingredients: Cream Cheese Frosting 

8 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 
12 ounces cream cheese at room temperature 
4 cups icing sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Instructions: Cream Cheese Frosting 


1. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. 

2. Add icing sugar one cup at a time beating until combined. 

3. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. 

4. Fill a plastic ziplock bag with the cream cheese frosting and cut a small hole in one bottom corner. 

5. Flip one of your whoopie pies over and frost the inside. Gently press another whoopie pie on top of the frosting creating a sandwich. 

6. Use the remaining frosting to pipe football laces on top of each whoopie pie. 


Results


Creating the batter for the whoopie pies and the frosting was a quick and easy process. This being said, trying to make the batter into football shapes on the baking sheets proved to be a difficult task for me. The batter was gooey and quite sticky so it was hard to get it to hold the shape that I wanted. I tried the first batch of whoopie pies using the suggested strategy of using a butter knife to help shape the batter. Once this batch was ready, I grew discouraged as they did not resemble footballs in the slightest. I managed to save this batch after they had cooled by using a knife to cut around the edges of the whoopie pies creating a more distinct football shape. After this lengthy and frustrating process I decided that I would try something different for my next batch. I thinly lined the bottom of a cake pan with the batter and planned on cutting the football shapes out of the 'cake' after it had cooled. This was much simpler to do, but the whoopie pies from this batch ended up being very thick. 


The result of my first batch of whoopie pies after using the butter knife to help shape the batter...evidently they did not turn out as planned haha


I was able to save the first batch by cutting around the edges in the shape of a football after they had cooled. 

For my second batch, I used a cake pan to bake the batter and cut football shapes out of the cake. 


Thankfully, the whoopie pies tasted good and the process of making the frosting was a lot simpler. The recipe suggested using a piping bag fitted with a star tip to frost the whoopie pies. I did not want to buy a piping bag, so I decided to try out using a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the tip of the bottom corner. I am so glad I did not go to the extra effort to buy a piping bag as the zip lock bag worked very well! I cut a larger hole in the bag I used to frost the inside of the whoopie pies, and I cut a small hole in the bag that I used to frost the football laces on top. 

Overall, the whoopie pies turned out pretty well. They taste good, but the process of making them definitely tested my patience. The whoopie pies were not too sweet which balanced out the very sweet icing. I would have liked to find an easier way to create the shape of the footballs as mine did not turn out as well as the picture in the recipe I used. Furthermore, the sizes of my whoopie pies varied greatly so at times it was difficult to find a matching top to finish off the 'sandwich'. Some of the whoopie pies were thin while others turned out very large and thick making it difficult to know how much icing I should put on them. I will not be making these whoopie pies again even though they were a cute addition to our super bowl party and everyone seemed to enjoy them. I hope that next weeks baking goes a little more smoothly than this weeks. 

My mismatched football whoopie pies...at least they tasted better than they looked!! 

1 comment:

  1. It was so fun following your Genius Hour Project! You were very organized and consistent with your posts. They were very easy to follow since you always use appropriate fonts for your title, headings and information, which made it a pleasure to read. You were consistent with the format by always including the ingredients, steps, images and how successful the baking was. You had something different and exciting to bake every week, which was great! You always were looking for something new and fun to create, but you also increased the difficulty of your baking on a weekly basis finishing of your project with a soufflé (Amazing, Congrats!). Each image you used in your blog post was explained thoroughly so there was no confusion. Overall, I feel that you Genius Hour Project was a success, you learned a lot and will enjoy cooking even more since you know all these useful tricks. I can't wait to see what you decide to take on next!

    ReplyDelete