New Hampshire International Speedway Archives

You should totally make these for your dog walker when you leave your dog with her and her adorable family for 4 1/2 days and the idea is totally crushing you. Sure, you really need the vacation before you are cut off from flying and before a cute wiggly baby comes crashing into your heart. But the fact that he has NEVER been without either of you for even a day is freaking you out… A LOT.

So that is what I did. I made these the morning of our flight so that our super amazing dog walker and her family would have something to enjoy while our pup ‘terrorized’ her life. Hello, middle of the night pee walks!!! In fact I got up so early (crazy lady) that the dog didn’t even want to get up when I checked on him. So I got to make these in peace while he slept another hour. Again, I’m nuts!

Oh, you aren’t pregnant and crazy about leaving your dog? Then just make these for this weekend’s NASCAR race in New Hampshire since you can’t not have maple goodies while in New England. So you’re not a NASCAR fan and don’t follow along with my Sprint Cup Snacks? Then make these just because you deserve them.

You totally do.

These are light, spongy maple cookies that are studded with walnuts that sandwich a fluffy cream cheese frosting. Once you take a bite you will be transported right to the middle of the woods in New England with maple taps all around you. Kinda like a Klondike Bar experience. Kinda.

Maple Walnut Whoopie Pies

Makes 13-15 small whoopie pies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
2 large eggs
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese
4 cups sifted glazing sugar OR confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper.
For the cookies: Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and maple flavoring.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrap the bowl down between the addition of each egg.
Add in the dry ingredients until the mixture is evenly moistened.
Scrape the bowl again, then mix in the walnuts.
Scoop by the tablespoonful to make 26-30 (even # amount!) cookies onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2″ of space between each cookie.
Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly touched, and the edges are a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a rack before filling.
For the filling: Place the cream cheese and half of the confectioners’ sugar in a large mixing bowl, and beat at slow speed until the mixture is smooth.
Add the remaining sugar and the flavoring, and mix until the filling is a spreadable consistency.
Place a tablespoon of filling on the flat face a cookie then top off with another cookie, flat face towards the filling.

Slightly adapted from King Arthur

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Earlier this year we discovered you could go for a ride in a NASCAR race car and immediately decided that this was something that had to be done. So my Dad got Price a gift card at graduation to do it. I decide that while it would be fun this could be Price’s thing to do and let him have all the fun while I got to take pictures. Plus I might have freaked a little, ha.

The Ride-Along Experiences are offered by Richard Petty Driving Experience. The ‘crew’ travels to different tracks on off racing weekends. In this case we went to New Hampshire International Speedway, and the NASCAR race occurred the week before (Clint Bowyer won). I had called ahead to find out the details about signing up for a ride-along. They told me it was first come first serve starting at 9:30am. Based on that we decided to leave Boston at 7am so we would get in line first. Low and behold, there was no line since they started early!!! As soon as Price signed up he got to go on his ride along.

At first he got suited up in a protective gear, then got a head sock on, then a helmet. They told him how to get in the car, which Price said was pretty easy. The crew woman put on a HANS device, hooked him in, and then up the the safety net. Price said the car has sooo much horse power that it makes your stomach feel like it’s sinking. It’s really hard to tell how fast you are going since there is no speedometer and everything was just whizzing by. He can’t imagine that the guys go even faster than what he did, and they do it with 42 other cars around them. He had a great time and did not want it to stop at the 3rd lap.

After the ride along, we hung around to watch the guys who signed up to drive the cars themselves. Then we went to Canterbury Shaker Village, which I will post about tomorrow, and spent the night camping. It was a great weekend 🙂

I got him a DVD of his Ride-Along, which will be arriving in 4-6 weeks. Stay tuned…