Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Orange Liqueur Cream

How can it be so bad for you when it tastes so good?  That just might be my life motto.

I remember seeing and tasting whoopie pies for the first time in a convenience store in Ohio when I was in college.  Yes, college was when I first saw and tasted a whoopie pie.  Sheltered life?  Perhaps.  The whoopie pie I tasted though, was anything but good.  A whoopie pie out of a cellophane package from a convenience store does not a gourmet snack make.  Fast-forward some, ahem, years and homemade and gourmet whoopie pies are somewhat of a rage or were the rage last year.

I found this recipe in The Boozy Baker by Lucy Baker and this, along with every other alcohol laced concoction in the book, was fantastic.  This was also much better than the cellophane wrapped piece of cardboard I tasted in college.

Enjoy!  xo, AJ


Adapted from The Boozy Baker, by Lucy Baker

Ingredients for the Cakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk or whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg

Ingredients for the Cream Filling:

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 1/2 cup marshmallow cream
2 tablespoons orange liquor (I used Cointreau)

Method:

Preheat the over to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.

To make the cake, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla.

In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the egg and beat until smooth.  With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture in three batches, beginning and ending with the flour.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix until just combined.

Using a 1/4 cup measure, drop mounds of dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them two inches apart.  You should have eight cookies on each sheet.  Bake until cookies are puffed and spring back when touched, about 12 minutes.  Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

To Make the Cream Filling:

Beat together the butter, confectioners' sugar and marshmallow cream in a large bowl using an electric mixer fitter with a paddle attachment.  Add the orange liqueur and beat until smooth.

To assemble the whoopie pies, spread heaping tablespoons of the cream onto the flat side of the half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies.