Go Bananas Whoopie Pies -- The Pie Karen Will Make for Jisoo

A milestone: Jisoo booked flights to Seattle. She is coming in April — April 15, two weeks, a visit that will be her first time in the United States, her first time in my city, her first time in my kitchen. The kitchen with the Carrara marble that rhymes with hers. The kitchen with the onggi pots and the photo of her hands above the stove. The kitchen she has seen in photos and on FaceTime but never stood in, never cooked in, never filled with the smell of her doenjang jjigae. She is coming. She is seventy-six years old and she has never left Korea and she is coming to Seattle to cook in my kitchen.

Jun-ho will not come — his health has been less stable this year, and the long flight is too much. Jisoo will come alone. She will fly from Gimhae to Incheon to Seattle, fourteen hours in the air, alone, at seventy-six, because her granddaughter lives in a house with a kitchen that was built for her and she needs to stand in it. She needs to cook in it. She needs to be there.

I told Karen on Saturday. She was quiet. Then she said, "Jisoo is coming." I said, "In April." Karen said, "I would like to meet her." The sentence was simple. The sentence was enormous. Karen wants to meet Jisoo. Karen — the mother who raised me, the mother who did not know about Korea, the mother who learned "halmoni" for Hana — wants to meet the mother who gave me away. Two mothers who have shared a daughter for thirty-one years without ever being in the same room. Two mothers connected by one woman, one baby, one kitchen. I said, "I would like that too." Karen said, "Invite her to Bellevue. I will make pie." She will make pie. For Jisoo. Karen will make pie for Jisoo. The world is strange and beautiful and I did not see this coming and I would not change a single thing.

The recipe this week is apple pie — Karen's apple pie, which I am practicing because if Karen is going to make pie for Jisoo, I am going to make pie too, and the pie needs to be perfect, and perfection requires practice. Granny Smith apples, peeled, sliced. Sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, flour. Pie crust — Karen's recipe, butter and flour and cold water. Roll. Fill. Cover. Crimp. Bake at 375. The pie is America in a dish. The pie is Karen in a dish. The pie will sit on a table next to Jisoo's doenjang jjigae and the table will hold both and I will sit between them — between my mothers, between my kitchens, between the two women who made me — and the sitting will be the thing I have been walking toward for nine years. The sitting will be home.

Karen said she would make pie, and I said I would make pie too — and then I stood in my kitchen with the onggi pots and the photo of Jisoo’s hands and I thought: what kind of pie do you make for a table that has never existed before? What do you bake when the thing you are baking toward is the most monumental sitting of your life? I landed on these Go Bananas Whoopie Pies because they are joyful and a little unexpected and slightly ridiculous in the best way, which is exactly how I feel about April — and because a table that holds doenjang jjigae and Karen’s apple pie has room for one more sweet, strange, wonderful thing.

Go Bananas Whoopie Pies

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min | Servings: 12 whoopie pies

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 large bananas)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• For the filling:
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon mashed ripe banana

Instructions

1. Preheat — prepare pans. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until evenly combined.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and brown sugar together with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
4. Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until incorporated. Add the mashed banana and sour cream and mix until smooth — the batter will look a little curdled; that’s fine.
5. Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined. Do not overmix.
6. Scoop and bake. Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and edges are just set. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Make the filling. Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and mashed banana and beat on low until combined, then on medium until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
8. Assemble. Spread or pipe a generous amount of filling onto the flat side of one cookie. Press a second cookie on top, flat side down, to form a sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.
9. Serve. Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 46g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 160mg