Every Once In A Blue MoonPie

TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO CELEBRATE A SPECIAL NEW YEAR’S EVE WITH A SPECIAL TREAT

After a co-worker pointed out that New Year’s Eve this year will also be a Blue Moon - which, by modern understanding means it’s the second full moon in a month - I was trying to justify doing a food story on the renown marshmallow cookies called MoonPies, in place of the obligatory black-eyed peas and collard greens piece.

That’s when - oh happy of happys - my hopeful Internet sleuthing gave me all the validation my moonstruck heart needed!

It’s called “MoonPie Over Mobile,” and it’s the Alabama city’s New Year’s Eve event.

In Cooper Riverside Park for thesecond year, a 600-pound electronic MoonPie will be raised at midnight to usher in the new year.

“Our MoonPie doesn’t drop; it actually rises. The moon rises,”said Barbara Drummond, executive director of administrative services for the city of Mobile.

“MoonPies are synonymous with Mobile,” she said. The chocolatecoated marshmallow sandwich cookies are commonly tossed from floats during Mardi Gras parades, and Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras, she explained. “Everybody thinks it’s New Orleans, but that’s not it.”

Originally, people on parade floats threw treats like Crackerjack boxes during carnival celebrations, but those items were too heavy, said Mobile City Council Vice President Fred Richardson. When MoonPies came onto the scene, they proved to be the perfect size and weight for throwing to revelers. “Not onlythat, but everyone loved them,” he said. Now they’re so central to parade floats, that “if you don’t have a MoonPie, you’ll get booed.”

It was Richardson’s brainchild to tie the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations to the iconic snack cake. He originally wanted to have party attendees make the world’s largest MoonPie, Drummond said, but organizers soon decided to make it the theme for the entire event.

Chattanooga Bakery, the Tennessee-based maker of the treat, got on-board and made Mobile revelers a 60-pound MoonPie, in addition to handing out thousands of regularsized ones. Normally, MoonPies come in original-sized, double-decker and mini. Coating flavors vary from the original chocolate to banana, vanilla, strawberry, lemon and orange, and the bakery also produces the MoonPie Crunch, a chocolate-covered sandwich treat with a crispy cookie shell, that comes with mint- or peanut butterflavored creme fi lling.

But regardless of the fl avor or size, a MoonPie must be a pretty good reason to celebrate. Mobile’s party went from maybe 500 participants watching fireworks in years past to between 12,000 and 15,000 people attending the first MoonPie Over Mobile last year, Drummond said. “Who would have known that a MoonPie would generate such an interest?” she marveled. “Everybody was just absolutely fl oored.”

And thrilled. This year’s MoonPie Over Mobile will be even better, she said. “It’s going to be fabulous.”

But even if you can’t make it to Alabama to ring in the new year MoonPie style, youcan still join in the rare fun from home.

You can have black-eyed peas any year. But an excuse to eat a Blue MoonPie only comes around every once in a ... well, you know.

Down South

Homemade MoonPies

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup softened butter, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, divided

1 egg

1 cup white sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup marshmallow cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet.

The cookies:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter or margarine and white sugar. Add the egg, evaporated milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, andmix well. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture while stirring; mix just until all ingredients are combined.

Drop the dough onto the greased cookie sheet by rounded tablespoonfuls, leaving at least 3 inches between each one (the dough will spread as the cookie bakes).

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, oruntil firm. Allow to cool at least one hour before fi lling.

The filling:

In a medium mixing bowl, blend together 1/2 cup butter or margarine, confectioners’ sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and marshmallow cream. Mix until smooth.

Assemble the moonpies by spreading 1 to 2 tablespoonfuls of filling on the flat side of a cookie, then topping with the flat side of another cookie.

Life, Pages 8 on 12/30/2009

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