The Perfect Mother’s Day Recipe

Mother’s Day comes early this year, so we at the Big Bear Country Store wanted to give you a great idea that will surely thrill that special lady in your life. We suggest you bake up this special Watkins recipe for

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies  

This is a very simple recipe, so if you are all thumbs in the kitchen, don’t panic at the thought of actually baking something! The first thing you do is preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Then line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.

To make the whoopie pies, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium or high for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla, and mix well. Alternately, add buttermilk and flour mixture, beating after each addition just until combined. Stir in food coloring.

Spoon batter in 1 or 2 inch diameter rounds about 1/2 inch high on the prepared baking sheet allowing 1 inch space between rounds. Bake until tops are set, 7 to 9 minutes for 1 inch cookies or 9 to 11 minutes for 2 inch cookies. Cool completely on baking sheets on rack and then remove cookies from the baking sheet.

To make the filling, in a medium mixing bowl beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Fold in the jar of marshmallow creme. Spread the filling on the flat side of half of the cookies and top with the remaining cookies, flat side down. Store refrigerated in an airtight container.

Most of the ingredients for whoopee pies can be found in your own country store around the corner. However, we hope you have the two Watkins products in your pantry that give this recipe its perfect flavor – Watkins Original DoubleStrenth Vanilla and Watkins Baking Cocoa. If not – and you live within a 30-mile radius of Big Bear, California, one of the Big Bear Country Store managers or associates will be happy to deliver to your front door. If you live down the mountain, outside of Southern California or in another state, give us a call at 888-881-7372; we just might have another Big Bear Country Store Watkins distributor living near to you.

If you prefer, there’s still time for you to order these products online. Just go to the home page of the Big Bear Country Store at http://www.BigBearCountryStore.com, click on the Recipes link on the store directory and then type in Red Velvet Whoopie Pies.

The full recipe will appear with links to the Watkins vanilla and baking soda so you can add them to your online Shopping Cart. All ingredients are listed below so you can check your cupboards and frig to make sure you have everything you will need.

Ingredients

2 cups flour 2Tbs Watkins Baking Cocoa    ½ tsp baking soda ¼tsp salt ½ cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar 1 egg 1 Tbsp Watkins Original Double-Strength Vanilla    ½ cup buttermilk 1 oz red food coloring 4 oz cream cheese, softened Filling: ¼ cup butter, softened 7 oz marshmallow crème       Now, if you are completely overwhelmed with the idea of mixing anything more complicated than a salad in the kitchen, we have another idea for the perfect Mother’s Day gift – the Watkins Gold Medal Assortment. No mixing, no stress, and guaranteed satisfaction when your mom opens the package. The Watkins Gold Medal Assortment contains the three products that made Watkins a household name, the award-winning Original Double Strength Vanilla (11 fl oz), plus the traditional tins of Cinnamon (6 oz) and Black Pepper (6 oz) in an attractive gift box. The price for the Gold Medal Assortment is $32.99. Again, give us a call at 888-881-7372 if you live near Big Bear, particularly if Mother’s Day is quickly approaching and you are worried that anything ordered online might not arrive before May 8. While a number of these Gold Medal Assortment sets were snapped off the shelves of the country store as Easter gifts, we have a few still available. Also, if your children are pooling their pennies and still can’t come up with this amount, we have some of the Gold Medal Sampler gift boxes available. These are sold out and no longer appear in the Watkins catalog. The smaller sampler box contains a 2 oz bottle of the Double Strength Vanilla and 2 bottles of the Black Pepper and Cinnamon. It is only $15.99.