happy birthday to me paleo whoopie pies!

i seriously just accidentally made whoopie pies...and they are paleo :-)

ok, ok, no, cavepeople DID NOT eat whoopie pies but if they'd had an oven and a kitchen aid mixer and palm shortening, they certainly would have.

let's face it...these aren't health food by any stretch of the imagination, nor are they really paleo (non-hydrogenated palm shortening, what?) but, hey...

tomorrow is my birthday :-)

i've been on this paleo journey for 6 weeks now...i feel so much better all around...i've lost a bunch of weight, my arthritis is not nearly as bad and i've had way fewer headaches and migraines.

i am very happy.

so, in honor of the 42nd year that jesus has seen fit to give me....i made whoopie pies!

did i mention it happened by accident?

i wanted to make paleo chocolate chip cookies, but i had zero chocolate chips, so i decided to make cocoa cookies instead and just made this recipe up by the seat of my pants.

it came out nothing like what i wanted

i had envisioned a chewy, dense, chocolately, slightly-crisp-on-the-outside and soft-in-the-center type of cookie but what i got was a very light, very airy and very intensely chocolate cookie that was really very much like a slice of cake. hmmmmm......i immediately thought of whoopie pies and set out to make some kind of paleo-friendly filling...and this is what i came up with!

so...happy birthday to me!

for the 24 cookies:

3/4 c coconut oil, solid
1/2 cup coconut sugar or honey
1/2 T vanilla
5 eggs
1/8t salt
3/4 c coconut flour
1/2 c cocoa
1 tsp baking soda

beat sugar or honey with coconut oil until smooth. add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. mix in vanilla, salt, coconut flour, cocoa and soda until well blended. using a small scoop, scoop out cookie dough onto parchment lined sheet pans, about 2 inches apart. wet the bottom of a glass and dip it into organic sugar, then use the glass to slightly flatten each cookie. bake approx 10 min at 375 degrees...do not over bake! let cool completely before frosting.

for the frosting:

1 cup palm shortening
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 T vanilla extract

whip palm shortening in a stand mixer until light and smooth. gradually add in the honey, about 1T at a time, whipping between additions. repeat with maple syrup. add vanilla and continue whipping until light and airy, approx. 10 minutes. please adjust the amounts of honey and syrup to your taste...some may like it much more sweet than i do :-) fill each whoopie pie with 2 T frosting and celebrate!!

in the picture below, i made another batch and reduced the eggs from 5 to 3 and omitted the soda in an effort to get a less-cakey version. i actually like the cakey version much better :-)

nom nom