I had my first London Fog while working at a cafe in D.C. Working at that cafe was the single worst hospitality industry experience I ever had, but the London Fog? It was aromatic and subtly sweet and on days when I thought I couldn’t fake one more second of a smile, it provided a warm and soft place to get lost in.
These whoopie pies are fluffy, creamy soft places to land this holiday season. A surprising number of people in my life had never heard of whoopie pies, so if this is your first introduction too, welcome! They’re kind of a cookie but also cake. They come in all sorts of flavors and they’re adorable. I hope you love them as much as I do. Until tomorrow—love you <3
LONDON FOG WHOOPIE PIES
Makes 11 cookies
Cookies
1 cup whole milk
3 earl grey tea sachets
2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar
Filling
5 egg whites
½ cup honey
½ cup granulated sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter, cubed, slightly colder than room temp
½ teaspoon flaky sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Make the cookies:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat the milk to nearly a boil. Pour over the tea bags and let this steep and cool for 30 minutes.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars on medium speed. You want a good amount of air in this mixture, so let this get nice and mixed for probably longer than you think, maybe 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl two or three times as it mixes.
Add the egg, vinegar, and vanilla on medium-low speed and mix until well-incorporated.
Now, strain the tea bags out of the milk, squeezing as much liquid out of them as possible. Alternate adding the dry mixture and milk to the mixer on low speed, starting with the dry. I added about ⅓ of my dry, ½ my milk, ⅓ dry, the rest of the milk, then the final addition of dry I folded in with a spatula. You don’t have to wait for everything to fully incorporate each time, just until it mostly is. Take care to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl through this process.
Use a 1 oz scoop (or roughly two tablespoon-sized) and scoop the dough into cookies. Line them on your sheet tray leaving about two inches in between them (I managed to squeeze 11 on my tray, but 10 would be safer).
Bake these for 8-12 minutes, until the middle is set and the edges just have the faintest hint of turning golden. Cool completely on the trays or preferably on a wire rack, if you have one.
Make the filling:
Bring a pot filled with about an inch of water to a boil. Pick the size of pot based on which one allows your large mixing bowl or bowl of your stand mixer to rest on top of it (creating a double boiler). Bring this water to a simmer.
In the large mixing bowl or your stand-mixer’s bowl, whisk together the egg whites, honey and sugar. Set this over the simmering water and continue to whisk pretty regularly. It’ll start foaming up a bit and lighten in color. You want the sugar to dissolve here, so you can use your fingers to feel when the mixture is warm to touch and no longer grainy in between your fingers, or you can use a thermometer. It should reach roughly 160 degrees.
Remove the bowl from the heat and using a hand mixer or your stand mixer, start whisking on a medium-high heat. Now, the mixture will start to turn into meringue and get really fluffy. Let it go for 5-10 minutes, until the bowl feels closer to room temperature and the mixture holds stiff peaks.
With the mixer still running on medium-high, add the butter one cube at a time. There may be some splashing that happens—that’s okay! Keep going. Once almost all of your butter is added, it may start to look insane, like it’s broken. That’s okay, too! Keep going! Let the mixer keep going, scrape down the sides and the bottom a couple of times, and eventually, you’ll start to see a luscious, smooth buttercream form.
Add the salt and vanilla and mix about a minute more until combined. You made Swiss buttercream!
Finish the cookies:
Pair up cookies that are the same size. Similarly to the molasses cream pies, you can pipe or use an offset spatula or butter knife to frost your cookies. I like to pipe a generous dollop of buttercream right in the center on the bottom of one cookie and press it gently into the bottom of another. Repeat until all are filled.
I dusted mine with a little powdered sugar when I served them, but you don’t have to. These have our shortest shelf life, maybe 3 days max. But they freeze fairly well!
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