Healthy Whoopie Pies

Until I moved to Vermont, I had never heard of whoopie pies— a cream-filled cakey chocolate sandwich cookie originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They have a cultlike following in New England. At every roadside stop between here and Maine they are piled up in neat little stacks. And they’re quite delicious…but often made with a filling of sugar-laced shortening. So they’re not so stellar nutritionally.

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We decided to makeover the classic whoopie pie and we had great success.

Here’s how a traditional whoopie pie stacks up against our madeover version:

Traditional Whoopie Pie: Calories: 679; Fat: 36 grams; Saturated Fat: 9 grams; Trans Fat: 4 grams

EatingWell Whoopie Pie: Calories: 202; Fat: 11 grams; Saturated Fat: 4 grams; Trans Fat: 0 grams

Here are the secrets of how we made whoopie pies healthier:

Replaced vegetable shortening with healthy canola oil and substituted nonfat milk for whole milk in the cookie.
Whole-wheat pastry flour replaced all-purpose flour.
A combination of nonfat yogurt and whipped cream thickened with gelatin replaced vegetable shortening, marshmallow fluff or whipped cream in the filling.
We made a whoopie pie with a slightly smaller portion size – many traditional versions are nearly as big as a salad plate!