You know something is “meant to be in your life” when you go from completely-ignorant-of-it’s-existence to hearing-about-it-everywhere-you-go in a matter of days. Or it’s just damned good promotion. Either way, that’s the way it’s been lately for me and BAKED, a bakery in Brooklyn with the most enticing desserts I’ve come across outside of Big A’s kitchen.
Until last week, I hadn’t heard of BAKED. Then, Khalil made a peanut butter banana cream pie that I needed to eat two pieces of. He got the recipe from their newly released second book, Baked Explorations. It’s a beautifully styled, mouthwatering page-turner. I knew Big A would love it. So, I tell her “I saw a baking book you need…” She interrupts me: “Is it called Baked?” Me: “Yes! How did you know??” Her: “I’ve had their first book on my Amazon wish list for a year… ” Me: “You use the wish list? Way to show some self-restraint… but you should have these books…”
Now, a few weeks ago at a bake sale, I bought myself a Pumpkin Whoopie Pie and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So, I decided to make them for the neighbor’s Halloween party. I googled “Pumpkin Whoopie Pie“. Oh, a recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling on MarthaStewart.com (of course I’ll click on a Martha link first…) … it’s courtesy of Matt Lewis at BAKED… Coincidence? I think not. Clearly, this is the recipe to use. So, I followed the recipe as close as I could, except I made them bite-sized and adjusted the cooking time accordingly (toothpick test!).
Oh, and here’s an important note of caution for you: these cookies do NOT spread at all when you bake them… If, like me, you don’t have an ice-cream scoop, and you “pipe” the sticky dough with a ghetto pastry bag (ziplock bag with a corner snipped…), and they go on the pan looking like turds, when they come out of the oven, they will still look like turds. And then you will have to eat the first batch yourself, because you can’t bring a bunch of turd cookies to a party. No, not even to a Halloween party… So, use an ice cream scoop or smooth those things out before you put them in the oven!
Honestly, I wish I screwed up another batch, because no matter what they look like, they taste AWESOME. The cookie part alone : awesome. The cream cheese filling : awesome. Awesome party treat. Awesome for breakfast the next day.
Clearly, Baked and I are meant to be friends (at least on Facebook…). I don’t know why we’ve been brought together or what the future of our relationship will bring (a few excess pounds, perhaps?), but this Pumpkin Whoopie Pie date has me totally smitten and waiting by the phone for Baked to call again.
Which it already has! Guess who’s on Martha’s show today?
That’s right, Matt Lewis of BAKED. I’m just saying — if he looks right into the camera and says “Hey Alyssa, I’ll think you’ll really like this Mississippi Mud Pie I’m making!” I’m not going to be surprised…
.a
ps. I corrected the turdness of the cookies by piping one big dot (instead of a swirl) and smoothing it with my finger. Maybe Big A — ahem, “Santa” — will put an ice-cream scoop in my stocking this year…?
HA. turd pies. love them. there must be an appropriate event for a turd pie… but what would it be? graduation maybe? “congratulations! you’ve graduated and you are now $120,000 in debt. here’s a turd pie.”
maybe graduating with your PhD in proctology?
I was cracking up Alyssa…as I was looking at the picture (before I read on) I thought to myself, “these look like turds” and then saw what you wrote…too funny! They do look delicious, even with the “turd factor”.
Gonna make me some “Turd Pies” this weekend!! 🙂
oh, you should have seen me… i put that first batch in the oven thinking “boy, these look disgusting… but surely they will spread as they bake…” and then when the timer went off — i still had a pan full of turds! it was only funny, though, after i figured out how to fix it for the next batch! then i cracked up looking at them and said “i can’t not post a picture of this…” glad you got a kick out of it, carol! enjoy!
While they did, in fact, look like turds…they tasted delicious!
I have that book on my Christmas list, too! I’ve never been to the bakery but it sounds incredible.