Homemade Twinkies: Make Your Own #40

Making homemade twinkies involved revisiting an old nemesis.  You see, I wanted these treats to be shortening free.  I needed a filling that would be creamy and thick.  After looking at a lot of copycat recipes floating around the internet, I realized with a sag of my shoulders, that I was going to have to use Continental Frosting.  Have you heard of it?  I suppose it has been around forever and is actually an old fashioned form of icing/filling.  I hadn't tried it before last Christmas, however, and the version I tried failed...miserably.  I have come to realize, though, that it was the recipe I used had faulty instructions.  I compared as many recipes as I could to the one I had and all of them stood together against the hand written recipe in my kitchen.  It turned out much better this time around.

I also had to search high and low for a sponge cake recipe that didn't call for 7-9 eggs, separated.  I had 2 egg whites in a bowl in my fridge from the butterscotch pie I had made earlier in the week (I wonder if I took any pictures of that...it was gone in one sitting)  Anyway, I was feeling lazy and wanted to use what I had.  I finally found a "Quick Sponge Cake" on Cooks.com that worked.

So, here it is: this cook's version of Twinkies:
for the cake: (from Cooks.com)
2 eggs (or 1 egg and 2 egg whites)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour (or 3/4 cup AP flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are the palest yellow and very frothy.  Add the sugar and mix another 2 minutes until smooth and creamy looking.  In a microwave safe container, nuke the milk for a minute
or until bubbly.  Add the butter and vanilla and let the milk sit while the butter melts.  Add the milk mixture to the sugar mixture.   Combine the flour and powder thoroughly in a little bowl and add to the batter and beat another minute.

Spoon into either a prepared twinkie pan or homemade twinkie forms made out of foil.  Instructions are found in this video


Bake the twinkies at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the foil forms and let cool on a wire rack.

For the filling (Continental Frosting):
3 Tbsp AP flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
In a saucepan, combine the flour and milk with a whisk.  Heat and stir until it thickens to the consistency of pudding.  Remove from heat and stir in the salt and vanilla.  Place plastic wrap or waxed paper directly on the thick flour mixture and let it cool completely.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Beat in the cooled down flour mixture.  Keep in the fridge until ready to use to fill the twinkies.

Place the filling in a pastry bag with a plain tip.  Gently squirt the filling into three places in the bottom of each cake.  You can try making a hole first with a straw or chopstick.  Don't fill too much or the sides will burst.

The verdict: "Mom, these don't really taste like twinkies, but they are really good."  So, if you want a "good for you" twinkie and don't plan on buying the hydrogenated fat filled kind, these are a perfect substitution.  If you want either a vegan or a gluten free version, I found these recipes.  Be sure to click through all of it.  It's full of all sorts of useful twinkie making information.

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