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Whoopie pies are the sandwich cookie of childhood, paleo edition: tender cocoa cakes mixed with warm water and cacao, sandwiched around a vanilla pudding filling. The cakes puff in the oven and cool soft, exactly right for hugging the cream. Eight big sandwiches per batch.
Pro Tips
- Whisk the cacao powder with the warm water until completely smooth. It should look like glossy chocolate syrup before it joins the batter.
- Use a greased quarter-cup measure for uniform cakes and give each scoop two full inches to spread. Sixteen cakes means eight perfect sandwiches.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Overbaked cakes crack instead of bending around the filling.
- Cool the cakes completely on the sheets before filling. Warm cakes melt the pudding straight out of the sandwich.
- Spread about 2 tablespoons of vanilla pudding per sandwich and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the filling made of?
A quarter batch of the vanilla pudding recipe, spread between two cooled cocoa cakes. It stays creamy without any dairy.
Can I make whoopie pies ahead?
Yes, and they actually improve. Assemble them, cover, and refrigerate up to 2 days so the cakes soften around the filling.
Why did my cakes come out flat?
Usually the batter sat too long before baking or the scoops were too large. Bake the trays as soon as the batter is portioned out.
Are whoopie pies paleo?
The cakes are grain-free and dairy-free, built on cacao, almond flour, coconut oil, and palm sugar, with a vanilla pudding filling.
Recipe Card

Ingredients
Method
- 1.
- Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 375°F.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk cacao powder and water together in bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together.
- 2. In large bowl, whisk palm sugar, coconut oil, and one teaspoon vanilla together until incorporated.
- Whisk in eggs and cacao powder mixture until smooth. Gently stir in flour mixture with a rubber spatula until a soft dough forms.
- 3.
- Using a greased quarter-cup measure, drop scant quarter-cup scoops of batter two inches apart on prepared baking sheets (you should have sixteen cakes total).
- Bake cakes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about 14 minutes), switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.
- Let cakes cool completely on sheets. Filling Use a quarter of the recipe for Vanilla Pudding to fill the Whoopie Pies. Assemble eight sandwich cookies by spreading about two tablespoons of filling between two cookies.
- Serve.




