Whoopie Pies - A PA Tradition

BY GREG WILLIAMS Sentinel reporter gwilliams@lewistownsentinel.com

LEWISTOWN – Central Pennsylvania loves its whoopie pies. You know, the chocolate cakes with a frosting filling are fixtures at bakeries, fairs and farmers markets across the mid-state.

Whether you call them whoopie pies or gobs, one thing is for certain – everyone has their favorite recipe.

There are dozens of twists that veer from the standard white cream filling sandwiched between two cookies. Some prefer peanut butter, red velvet or pumpkin.

“My family’s favorites are either chocolate or pumpkin,” said Bev Kauffman of Lewistown, who operated a catering business in Juniata County for nearly 20 years. She has authored the cookbook, “Preserving the Past: In the Kitchen with Bev

Kauffman” in 2013 and is currently working on a second cookbook. Her “Bev’s Kitchen” recipes routinely grace the pages of The Sentinel’s Cuisine section.

The cookies are traditionally chocolate, but experimentation in the kitchen has resulted in sightings for other flavors, such as red velvet and pumpkin.

Kauffman said it’s important to make certain the filling matches the cookie flavor. “Pumpkin gets a cream cheese filling,” she cautioned. “Once I made shoofly whoopie pies. Extremely time consuming.”

She’s also made a raspberry cream filling, along with a Nutella/peanut butter cream chocolate whoopie pie.

Despite Maine claiming the whoopie pie as its creation and official state treat, many say whoopie pies originated in the Keystone State, where Amish women baked them and put them in farmers’ or school children’s lunches.

Those who discovered them in their lunch pails would shout, “Whoopie!”

Cooking historians have linked whoopie pies in Lancaster County to the 1960s and ’70s.

Kauffman agreed, “I believe the whoopie pies –not gobs – represent Dutch food culture.”

Whether considered a New England classic or a Pennsylvania Amish tradition, whoopie pies are increasingly sold throughout the United States. Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia and, of course, Pennsylvania all claim to be the birthplace of the whoopie pie.

Gob – a term indigenous to the Pittsburgh area –has been trademarked by the Dutch Maid Bakery in Johnstown. The owner bought the rights to the name and the process in 1980.

Kauffman considers whoopie pies to be on an iconic level. “They’re up there with shoofly pies and moon pies,” she said.

Whoopie pies are so revered, the Pennsylvania State Farm Show hosts the annual Pennsylvania’s Greatest Whoopie Pie Contest every January.

The world’s largest whoopie pie was created in South Portland, Maine in 2011, weighing in at 1,062 pounds. Pieces of the giant whoopie pie were sold and the money was used to send Maine-made whoopie pies to soldiers serving overseas. The previous record holder, from Pennsylvania, weighed in at 200 pounds.

“It’s been a PA treat for many years,” said Kauffman of whoopie pies which just celebrated its 100th birthday. “My kids like them because it’s handheld and easy to eat. There’s no cutting or plates needed.”