Whoopie!

Having been gluten free for six years and often finding myself in different cities, I've tried many different gluten free bakeries. Gluuteny, in Pittsburgh, and Baby Cakes, in New York City, are tied for first as they offer varied items and have differing atmospheres. These champs are followed by Sweet Sin (Sweet 27), in Baltimore and Sweet Freedom, in Philadelphia.

I had bought my mother a bag of Gluuteny's Whoopie Pie Mix, I figured this was a better alternative to buying a fresh one that would have grown stale before I made my way back to my parent's house. Well a couple days ago, I decided to bust this bad bag out and experience some of Pittsburgh's finest.

The recipe was simple enough. An egg, some water, and some milk combined with the mix is supposed to yield four big whoopie pies (my mother normally cuts one whoopie pie into quarter sized servings). But the texture of the batter didn't have a high viscosity which made me nervous.

And rightly so. Despite their flat nature, once joined by a delicious cream filling the should be volumpous whoopie pies were more like a crumbly oatmeal cream pie. My mother suggested I try baking the rest of the batter in a cake pan, cut it in half, and put the cream between the layers. I thought it would be a better and cuter idea to make mini whoopie pies by baking the batter in a mini cupcake tray.

Once the whoopie-cupcakes were removed from the tray, they were frozen in order to combat their desire to fall apart.

After they were filled with cream, they were the perfect serving size! I am not on Gluuteny's baking level yet, but this little guys will hold me over until I can visit the store again!