Homemade Ding Dongs or Ring Dings or whatever you call them

Our cooking club theme last month was Gourmet Kids Menu. We were all tasked to “gourmetify” a favorite kids food. We watched the movie Big while chowing down on some lobster mac and cheese, pizza with caramelized onions, goat cheese, and prosciutto, and other grown up kids foods.

Homemade Ding Dongs

Since I always make desserts, I wanted to find a classic childhood dessert and make it from scratch. I immediately thought of all the varieties of packaged desserts cakes and cookies that we always had in our lunch boxes growing up. My mom would let us choose a box of our favorite treat for our lunches. I always loved Swiss Cake Rolls and Oatmeal Cream Pies. Another favorite of mine was the Ding Dong.

Homemade Ding Dongs

Now I had no idea there was such a huge debate about these little guys, but apparently there is. Hubby of course had no idea what a Ding Dong was. I blame that he grew up on the East Coast. Once I found out the name he knew them by (Ring Dings) we were on the same page about the fact that it would be fun to try to recreate them from scratch. If you’re interested in learning more about the Ding Dong debate, check out this page on slashfood or this page on wikipedia.

Homemade Ding Dongs

Once Hubby was on board with my idea, I set out to find a recipe. I had no idea how hard that would be, but decided to rely on one of my favorite bloggers, Deb from Smitten Kitchen. I made the cake in two nine-inch pans and after reading the comments realized that I’d have enough batter leftover for some cupcakes too – score! Instead of turning it in to a layer cake, I cut out rounds of cake (once again using those round cookie cutters my Dad thought I’d never use). Then I filled them with the whipped filling and coated them in ganache.

Homemade Ding Dongs

Let me tell you, these little Ding Dongs were amazing. The chocolate cake is so rich and moist. And how can you go wrong drenching anything in ganache? They were quite the labor of love though. I ended up using a brush to basically paint the ganache onto each one individually.

Homemade Ding Dongs

The filling was perfect as well. I have made fauxstess cupcakes before using the exact same filling recipe. This time it was much more fluffy and I definitely preferred it over the last time. Maybe I did it wrong last time, who knows.

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Homemade Ding Dongs

Ding Dongs are a classic childhood lunch treat. Homemade Ding Dongs taste even better than you could imagine!

Yield: makes 12

Ingredients:

For the Cake
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 tsp vanilla

For the 7 Minute Frosting
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 Tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2-ounce pieces

Directions:

For the Cake
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms of 2 10-inch round cake pans with wax paper and grease paper. If you don't have 10-inch cake pans, you can make 2 9-inch cake pans and a dozen cupcakes.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored. Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

For the 7 Minute Frosting
Combine frosting ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Use frosting the day it is made.

For the Ganache
Heat the heavy cream and the butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil.

Place the semisweet chocolate in a 3-quart stainless steel bowl. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth.

To assemble the Ding Dongs
Once the cake layers have cooled completely, use a small round cookie cutter to cut small circles of cake out of the layers. Enjoy the scraps or save them for cake balls.

Using the cone method, scoop out a small portion of cake from each circle. Fill with 7-minute frosting and replace top of cake.

Using a pastry brush or spoon, cover individual cakes with ganache. Allow ganache to completely set up before serving.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

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13 Responses to “Alton Brown’s “The Chewy””

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    1
    Bridget — March 5, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    Aren’t they the best? They’re so addicting. I’ve actually starting using the same ingredients, but mixing them like a more traditional chocolate chip cookie (i.e., softened butter instead of melted), because I like the dough better with softened butter. The baked cookies were just as good. Best of both worlds!

  2. #
    2
    Laure — March 5, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    These look gorgeous. Don’t you just love AB??? 🙂

  3. #
    3
    Julie — March 6, 2009 at 4:06 am

    The cookies look great. I love AB too..he’s such a dork (in a good way).

  4. #
    4
    CoCo — March 6, 2009 at 5:50 am

    I love the ATK/CI Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. I will have to try these to see what I think. I remember seeing that the recipes looked similar so I am sure I will love them.
    Another AB lover here. My husband gives me a hard time about my DVR list with him but loves it when I give him a fun tidbit or cook him something from AB.

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    5
    Jen — March 6, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    I completely agree CoCo. Hubby does the same thing. I sometimes even watch episodes I’ve seen before! Hubby doesn’t like to admit it, but he loves AB too. Sometimes he’ll be the one saying “AB says to do this…”

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    6
    foodess — March 9, 2009 at 3:38 am

    They look SO good!! I am a sucker for a chewy chocolate chip cookie. Although, I must side with your hubby – I prefer mine with just a bit of chocolate.

  7. #
    7
    Naomi — March 9, 2009 at 6:46 am

    How much is a stick of butter? I’m not in the US and have never come across this measurement before.

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    8
    Jen — March 9, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Sorry about that Naomi – 1 stick of butter = 8 Tbsp. Does that help?

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    Dani — March 9, 2009 at 11:46 am

    this is very similar to the ccc recipe i use, but anything that makes it chewier is good in my books! i will have to keep this one in mind 🙂

  10. #
    10
    Naomi — March 13, 2009 at 10:05 am

    Yes Jen, thank you!

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    11
    Allie — June 2, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Yum! I will definitely be trying these. I always chill my cookie dough too usually because I’m too busy with 3 little ones but I also read that article in the NY times awhile ago and I felt like I deserved a nice big pat on the back for always doing the 24hour chill 🙂 Great post and beautiful cookies!

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    12
    Susan — June 23, 2015 at 4:41 pm

    I love Alton Brown because of his scientific approach to cooking and baking. I’ve been baking “The Chewy” for years. One thing I do differently: Before chilling the dough, I scoop it into balls. This makes the process much easier. Sometimes I freeze the balls for baking later. After I place the balls on parchment, I carefully place a few extra chocolate morsels on top, pointy side up. This extra step produces picture-perfect cookies every time.

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    13
    Desiree — July 2, 2016 at 1:56 am

    The Chewy is my go to recipe for cookies. I make a few alterations, occasionally, such as substituting 1/4 of the brown sugar with dark brown sugar. I bake small portions in mini muffin tins; one batch makes 48 cookie bites that are super chewy and the perfect size bite. I’ve made them every year for Christmas gifts for a few years now.

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