I never met my paternal Mémère (grandmother) Theresa, but I have many of her recipes. And that Windsor (Maine) Fair Blue Ribbon isn't there just for decoration. This is an award winning recipe beating out roughly thirty other entries that year at the state's second largest agriculture fair which sees approximately 130,000 visitors during it's week-long run.

I made a batch yesterday for a local scout troop's bake sale. So, why not take a picture and share the recipe with all of you out there. Recipes can be lost if kept secret. Enjoy.

Heals:
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine in bowl and mix well. Drop by heaping teaspoon onto ungreased baking/cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool for a couple minutes and then transfer to wax paper and allow to cool completely.

While they cool, make your frosting. This should look familiar to those who have seen my chocolate cake recipe, it's the same recipe. Vanilla frosting is traditional. If you prefer peanut butter, you could use that recipe instead.

2 cups confectioners (powder) sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup vegetable shortening
Dash salt

Mix until well blended.

Now, match-up your heals. Frost one heal and make a sandwich of the other heal and enjoy! Makes about a dozen large or 2 to 3 dozen small whoopie pies

TIP: To get heals that are more even/closer to round, use a cookie scoop. The smaller ones in the picture used a 1/2 inch (1cm) scoop and produced a 1.5 to 2 inch (4-5cm) heal. The larger in the upper left used a 1 inch (2.5cm) scoop and produced 3 inch (7.5cm) heal. If you want more frosting in your whoopie pies increase the frosting recipe by 50%.