Great Regional Fare: Eating Whoopie Pies in Lancaster County
When Al Dente blog reader Pat Hawn recently shared her inexpensive regional foodie finds, I was thrilled to learn that one of them, Whoopie Pies, originated in Pennsylvania Dutch country, an area I was planning on visiting this summer.
I stopped in at the Lancaster County Farmers Market just a few days ago, eager to scout out regional delicacies including the famed Whoopie Pie. And I found that homespun treat at J & R Baked Goods.
The chocolate pies had been snapped up earlier in the day, so I settled for the pumpkin, an option I might have considered out-of-the-ordinary, had I not just read Micheline Maynard's New York Time's article "Whoopie! Cookie, Pie or Cake, It's Having It's Moment". In it Maynard tracks the recent migration of Whoopie Pies from a regional Amish delicacy (it's also native to Maine, go figure) to bakeries across America, singling out several of these newer purveyors including Chicago's Fraiche Bakery Café, where the two most popular flavors are chocolate and pumpkin.
One look at a Whoopie Pie and you know right off the bat that it's not a pie at all. It is, rather, two rounds of cake with a fluffy, gooey filling that's eaten in-hand like a cookie. And my pumpkin Whoopie Pie was yummy. If your neighborhood bakery hasn't discovered the Whoopie Pie, you can find them online at specialty food stores including Dean & Deluca or Hancock Gourmet Lobster Company.
Thanks again, Pat, for passing this tip along. If anyone knows of other cheap and fun foodie souvenirs from the farmers market or the grocery store, let me know.
--Tracy Schneider
CakeSpy on July 03, 2009 at 08:35 AM
Whoa, how did you get the plastic wrap off without taking off half of the cookie? That's always my problem with whoopie pies!
Dave on July 03, 2009 at 08:54 AM
My mom made these and I loved them as a child.
However, they are really called "gobs" in her area of PA.
R. Long on July 03, 2009 at 01:12 PM
TAke a trip to Portage, PA and whoopie pies are called Gobs. Church sales still going on. Gobs have been around since 40's that I know of. A bakery made a cake like it w/photo of a sailor on it and they were called Gobs, too.
Jim on July 05, 2009 at 07:56 PM
Great post! Whoopie pies are something people in other parts of the country don't understand until they eat one. Good comment about unwrapping one without the pie sticking to the wrapping. Part of eating a whoopie pie is cleaning the pie off the wrapping.