Happy Friday! Hope you had a great week, and a great St. Patrick’s Day. Ironically, my son had an American Hero event in his class on St. Patrick’s Day. Each student was asked to bring in a type of food that originated in America. My son signed up to bring dessert (I’ve trained him well!). Being that it was St. Patrick’s Day, we wanted to make a dessert that would celebrate both occasions ~ and that’s where the whoopie pie comes in.                                                                                                                                                         

I posted awhile back about Epicurious’ prediction that cupcakes would take a backseat to whoopie pies this year. I have not strayed from my opinion. There is no dessert that will surpass my beloved cupcake, but I will say that these whoopie pies were a fun change.  

                                            Whoopie pies originated from the Amish community in Pennsylvania. The chocolate top and bottom are somewhere in between a cake and a cookie. Whoopie pies are usually filled with a marshmallow frosting or a buttercream frosting. We decided we wanted the filling to be green, which is why we opted for a mint buttercream filling. I used a popular recipe for the cookie/cake part that comes from Gourmet’s January 2003 issue.  The mint flavored buttercream recipe I found from Chockylit who used it to frost some amazing chocolate cupcakes.

More Mint-spiration…

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (love these!) If I made these again, I would use the chocolate cake recipe that I posted yesterday for Cupcake Hero.

Thin Mint Martini ~ This dessert cocktail tastes like liquid thin mint girl scout cookies. The chocolate drizzled in the bottom of the glass makes a delicious garnish.

                                                                                                                                       Chocolate Mint Whoopie Pies 

Chocolate Cake-Cookie Rounds

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.

Spoon  mounds of batter (I used one rounded tablespoon) about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets. Bake 11 to 13 minutes. Cookies will be done when they spring back when gently touched. Be careful not to over-cook. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.

Mint Flavored Buttercream Frosting (Chockylit)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp all natural peppermint extract (You may use more or less depending on your taste preference.)

Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl. Add 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and peppermint extract, beat until combined.Add more powdered sugar as needed to get piping consistency.

To Assemble

Fill a pastry cone or plastic bag with the icing and attach your desired pastry tip. Pipe generously onto a cake round, covering the entire surface, and top with another cake round. Alternately, you can pile on the frosting with a spoon and smooth out with a knife. Continuing this process until all the pies are assembled.