Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Frosting

Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Cream Frosting.  Absolutely perfect.

With an 8-oz. container of mascarpone cheese burning a hole in my fridge and a successful use of mascarpone frosting in My Chocolate Birthday Cake, I decided that I just HAD to make some whoopie pies with the mascarpone frosting.  I've had this whoopie pie recipe from the Food Network website since 2004, and I've never made it.  It's actually a Martha Stewart recipe, and it's no longer on the foodtv.com website.  
All that having been said...OH MY GOODNESS.  These are delicious.  The mascarpone frosting is the perfect filling for these things.  It's like a super thick whipped cream filling fluffy little cakes.  They're just barely sweet enough so that I don't feel sick after eating one. Mmmmm...I'm looking forward to my next one already.

Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Cream Frosting
    --adapted from Martha Stewart 's Whoopie Pie recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 recipes Mascarpone Frosting (One recipe wasn't quite enough.  I think doubling the frosting and making them obnoxiously full of the cream would be better.  Just saying.)

Instructions:
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light-colored and fluffy.  Add egg, buttermilk, and vanilla and beat until combined.  Slowly add dry ingredients, mixing until combined.  Scoop into an airtight plastic container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Using a medium sized cookie scoop (I used the medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop, which is about 2T), drop 2 inches apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until puffed and cracked on top.
Allow to cool a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet and then carefully move to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Once all cookies are baked and cooled, work on the filling.

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Ingredients:

•  8 oz. mascarpone cheese
•  1/4 cup sugar
•  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract*
•  1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Mascarpone Cream Frosting Instructions:  In a mixer bowl, cream mascarpone, vanilla & sugar.  Add cream and whip on high until stiff.

*Note: for the frosting you see pictured above, I used 1/3 of a vanilla bean pod, split and scraped, and I put it with the cream in a small saucepan, brought it barely to a simmer, and then refrigerated it.  Remove the vanilla bean pod before adding it to the mascarpone & sugar, making sure to scrape all of the precious seeds into the mixture.

Place frosting in a large zip-top bag and cut one of the bottom corners 1/2 inch.  Squeeze about 2 tablespoons of frosting on each of 16 cookies.  Then top with the remaining 16 cookies.  Now you have yummy whoopie pies.  

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, if they last long enough. 

Makes 16 pies.  Actually, it made 15 for me with two naked cookies. :(

Cakey and delicous