Chocolate Stout Whoopie Pies with Kahlua Buttercream Filling

I saw this recipe that was adapted for St. Patrick's Day.  Our friends invited us for dinner and asked us to bring dessert, and I thought I would take the opportunity to make something new.  I thought I would have most of the day to work on it but family intervened, giving me very little time in the morning before going to Rawhide most of the day.  Mine do not look like the photo in the link.

Chocolate Stout Whoopie Pies with Kahlua Buttercream Filling

Adapted from Bon Apetit January 2011 and Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 16 finished whoopie pies (If you can resist the cookies straight from the oven)

Cookies:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ¾ Cups unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 Cup stout (I used Wolaver’s, Guiness works too)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with stout in 2 additions, beating until blended after each addition.

Put cookie dough into the freezer for about 10 minutes, just to firm up a bit.  Drop dough by very rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are slightly puffed and spread but are still soft, a toothpick should come out clean, 8 to 10 minutes. Once cookes are removed from the oven, allow to cool for a minute and carefully transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie dough.

Kahlua Buttercream Filling

This makes enough to fill all of the whoopie pies. If you are a lot of filling/frosting person feel free to double the recipe – your sugar high awaits you!

• ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
• 2 cups confectioner sugar – divided into 1 cup portions
• Pinch of salt
• 3 Tablespoons Kahlua
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, 1 cup of the confectioner sugar and salt until creamy.  Add the remaining sugar, Kahlua and vanilla extract and mix until well blended.  If filling is too thick, add in drops of vanilla extract or milk.

Note: If you prefer not to indulge in alcohol (props to you!), replace the beer and kahlua with milk.

I used Guinness for the stout in the (cake-like) cookies; I did not use parchment paper since I have specific cookie sheets I only use for cookies.  (was this a mistake?)  I usually blend things by hand but followed the recipe directions, using my mixer with pretty nice results.  (but it wouldn't be hard to do by hand.)  I was able to make two pans of cookies, but put the last one in the fridge and baked the next day.  The cookies were huge, so I would recommend rounded teaspoonfuls rather than tablespoonfuls of batter.  The day 2 cookies came out looking like the cookies were supposed to, although they were still crumbly, just not AS crumbly as the day 1 cookies.  I did not have unsalted butter, so I used regular butter and did not use the pinch of salt in the filling.  The filling. is. so. friggin. awesome.  Even if I never make the cookies again, I will keep the filling recipe for the rest of my life.  Wow.  And yum.  It could probably be used for frosting a cake.

We ended up serving them like parfaits or something.

Note: For the leftovers, we put some filling in a bowl, softened it in the microwave, then added the cookie (crumbles) to soak up the warm filling.  It's not a bad way to  consume as much filling as my sweet tooth can handle.