Moore Minutes: How to Make Homemade Twinkies, a DIY Guide to an American Classic

Saturday, November 17, 2012

How to Make Homemade Twinkies, a DIY Guide to an American Classic

I'm sure most of you have heard that Hostess is out of business now. Today, I want to share some little tips with you on baking Twinkies in your own home sweet home so Twinkies can live on forever! Future generations need to know about this classic stuff, right? ;)

Good bye is not forever:

Last year I shared this same post on the VERY fun website, CATCH MY PARTY! With all the Twinkie news, I decided to share it again on MY blog here. On my guest post, I shared about how to make your own homemade twinkies!

Making homemade twinkies started when I hosted a Magic Show Party for my son's 7th birthday. When creating the dessert area, I wanted to focus on classic desserts in homemade form. We had homemade Oreos, donuts, and Twinkies!

This Twinkie recipe is automatically an instant winner because it comes from King Arthur's Flour website. Their recipes are total perfection.

This recipe is taken from King Arthur's Flour
All ingredients and directions are used from their recipe database.

Vanilla Snack Cakes

2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour Blend
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cold water
7 unbeaten egg yolks
1 teaspoon Princess Cake and Cookie Flavoring for true snack cake taste OR 1 teaspoon vanilla
7 egg whites, beaten very stiff

Snack Cake Filling

2 tablespoon King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons salted butter
4 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
dash of salt (optional)

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spritz a filled cake pan (aka cream canoe pan) with a light layer of cooking spray. Set aside.

2) Place all ingredients except beaten egg whites into a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth.

3) Working in thirds, fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Take care to keep the batter light; fold, don't beat.

4) Fill each section of the snack cake pan 2/3 full. The cakes will puff quite a bit during baking, but will shrink back during cooling. Bake the cakes in a preheated oven for 8-12 minutes, until golden brown.

5) Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a flexible spatula, gentle remove each cake and cool flat side down on a rack until completely cool. In the meantime, prepare the snack cake filling.

6) In a small saucepan cook flour and milk over medium heat until a paste forms. Stir constantly and do not allow mixture to brown. Remove from heat and let cool 1 minute. Add vanilla and stir until smooth. Press a piece of plastic wrap down on the surface of the paste to avoid forming a skin and set aside to cool completely.

7)In the bowl of your mixer beat butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy, scraping bowl to fully incorporate ingredients. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and continue to beat 5 minutes on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Use to fill snack cakes or cupcakes. Filling will remain creamy; store at room temperature 3-4 days.

8) To fill snack cakes: Place about 1 cup of filling into a clean pastry bag fitted with a round pastry tube, or use filling tool included with snack cake (cream canoe) pan. Gently insert the tube into the underside of the cake, about halfway through the cake. Using gentle pressure, squeeze a small amount of filling into the cake. You'll feel the cake expand under your fingers. Do not overfill, or the cake will burst. Repeat for a total of 3 times per cake. Store cakes well covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.

You can make your Twinkies look exactly like the Hostess Bakery ones by using a canoe pan. However, I used a traditional muffin pan for mine.

The secret ingredient in homemade Twinkies is Princess Flavoring! You can purchase it at Hobby Lobby.

The biggest tip when making these is to beat the egg white until they are VERY stiff. They should be able to completely hold their shape. It is also important to be extra gentle when folding the egg whites into the batter. Don't stir or mix. Simply fold the batter over the egg whites until the whites are covered.

You can see that the batter looks spongy. This is GOOD.

After your little sweets are finished baking, cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans. When removing, use a soft spatula to softly break away from edges and lift out of the pan. Your Twinkies should spring back when touched.

After your Twinkies cool, it's time for the fun stuff! Filling the centers with that amazing cream is super easy! Prepare your cream according to recipe and fill a pastry bag.

Turn the Twinkie upside down and gently press the pastry tip into the bottom of the Twinkie. Squeeze the cream in...but...don't squeeze too hard or else the Twinkie will explode. {wink}