Chocolate Whoopie Pies With (Honey-Sweetened!) Raspberry Buttercream Filling

Here are two facts: 1) Holistic Squid will never be a site devoted to baked goods. 2) If you find a sweet treat here, it's because it's really, really good.

I don't know how bakers do it. I nearly killed myself perfecting these chocolate whoopie pies – or more specifically, the honey-sweetened raspberry buttercream filling.

I figured I would substitute powdered sugar with a homemade version using mineral-rich sucanat, a.k.a. dehydrated cane juice. The results where muddy brown and way too much like molasses. Yuck. So I tried using turbinado sugar to make my own powdered sugar – yummy, for about a spoonful…until my head started throbbing from the sugar rush.

Honey-sweetened!

Finally, I decided, it must be a honey-sweetened buttercream filling, without any sugar at all. Two tries later, I feel like I just won an Olympic whoopie pie filling making event. I can hear the crowds cheering in my head. The frosting is delightfully pink and fluffy, just the right amount of sweet with a tangy tart at the finish.

Thank goodness I have this little helper so I'm not stuck licking those beaters and the bowl myself. Why do I go to all this trouble? Sure, I could just follow the recipes that I find online to a T, but it's important to me to use more nutrient-dense ingredients whenever possible so that my house isn't filled with a bunch of crazed sugar-junkies.

These chocolate whoopie pies use sprouted flour and sucanat instead of white flour and white sugar, and they taste just as delicious as their junkier cousins. The filling is made only with butter from grass-fed cows, local raw honey, lemon from my neighbor's tree and fresh raspberries. It's practically a superfood.

So while these chocolate whoopie pies with raspberry buttercream filling are admittedly an occasional special treat, I can offer them to my family without the guilt and we can all gobble them down with with joy. xo

Chocolate whoopie pies – ingredients

• 1 + 2/3 cups sprouted flour – get sprouted flour here
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder – this is the cocoa powder I buy
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. sea salt – my favorite sea salt
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sucanat – buy this unrefined sweetener here
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup milk, preferably from grass-fed cows

Chocolate whoopie pies – method

1. Preheat your oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
4. Add half of the milk and mix. Add half the flour and mix. Add remaining milk and mix. Add flour and mix just until combined.
5. Place 1 T. scoops of batter 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched.
6. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely and before filling. Makes about 10-12 mini pies.

 Raspberry buttercream billing ingredients

• 1 cup butter, room temperature – preferably from grass-fed cows
• 1/2 cup raw honey – get raw honey here
• 24 ounces of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• Pinch of fine sea salt – my favorite sea salt

Raspberry buttercream filling method

1. Place the raspberries in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a spoon until they break down into a sauce. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to take out the seeds and then put the seedless sauce back in the pot and simmer until it reduces to a 1/2 cup of very concentrated raspberry sauce.
2. Set aside to cool. When the raspberry flavoring is room temperature, cream the butter with a hand-held or standing mixer. Add honey, the cooled raspberry sauce, lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt. Beat on high until smooth.
3. When whoopie pies are completely cool, match them into pairs of equal size. Frost generously. Store at room temperature in an airtight container until ready to serve.

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