Lower-calorie Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Green Tea Cream

I have never heard of Whoopie Pies till recently when I started blogging and read about them from other food bloggers. Made up of two round mound-shaped pieces of cake with a sweet, creamy filling sandwiched between them, the Whoopie Pie is somewhat a cross between a cookie, pie, and cake.

According to food historians, Amish women would bake these desserts (known as hucklebucks, or creamy turtles at the time) and put them in farmers’ lunch pails or lunch boxes. When farmers would find the treats in their lunch, they would shout “Whoopie!” It is thought that the original Whoopie pies may have been made from cake batter leftovers.

I searched the web for a healthier version as I always try to cut down on fats and sugar when making desserts for my family. Here is a healthier version that uses wholemeal flour, mashed bananas and low-fat milk. I was a little worried about how this would turn out (as often times, bakes without butter/oil are rather dry and hard). However, these chocolate pies turned out to be delicious. It was very chocolate-y with a hint banana flavour. Though it has a slightly chewy texture, these Whoopie Pies were not dry at all. I actually thought this resembled brownies in many ways.

However, the cream turned out to be too sweet for my liking though. My kids were not fond of the cream either though they ate the chocolate pies with great relish (they got rid of the cream first). Overall, it is definitely a lovely treat!

Lower-calorie Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Green Tea Cream (makes 18 pies)
Recipe adapted from Glamour

Ingredients:

Cookie

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup mashed banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda*
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar*
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

* replaced baking soda + cream of tartar with 1 3/4 tsp of baking powder

Filling

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp of green tea powder (my own addition) – adjust according to your preference on how strong you like green tea flavour; and also on the fragrance of the green tea powder.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Spray nonstick spray on cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl cream together sugar and banana. Add eggs, milk and vanilla. In a small bowl combine the cocoa, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the liquids beating together until smooth.
4. Drop batter (about 2 tablespoons at a time) on to the cookie sheets to make 18 cookies (I pipped it on as its neater)
5. Bake 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. To make the filling, cream together the cheese and sugar add yogurt and green tea powder and continue to mix until well blended.
7. Assemble sandwiches by spreading the filling on the flat side of one cookie and topping with another pressing down to distribute filling evenly. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling (I pipped the cream on).
8. Wrap whoopie pies individually in plastic wrap or place them in a single layer on a platter as they will stick if stacked on top of each other.