Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies with Red Miso and Lemon Verbena Buttercream

The other night at work, some people were checking out cookie recipes on this website. One of them said, “Not all of the recipes are weird!” I was a bit surprised by that because, though I am drawn to trying recipes that seen different, there are a lot of recipes here that are not weird. This, however, is a very weird recipe. Actually, the cookie recipe itself is standard. The Red Miso and Lemon Verbena Buttercream is very strange. The miso is a bit too much for me but Shari liked it as did several other people.

It was a bit of a pain to get the ingredients for this recipe.  I ordered the red miso online. I guess what I got was authentic since there was not a word of English on the package. The lemon verbena I finally found at a local nursery. I had to let it grow a bit until it was large enough to be able to give me a tablespoon of chopped foliage without killing the plant. Anyway, if you want to try something fun (and weird,) here it is.

Recipe By:

Food & Wine

Yield:

45 double cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

3 cups flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups bittersweet chocolate, chopped*

 Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.

3. In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter until creamy, 1 minute.

4. Add the sugars and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes.

5. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

6. In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the hot water.

7. Stir soda mixture into batter.

8. At low speed, beat in the flour and salt until just incorporated.

9. Add the chocolate and beat just to distribute evenly.

10. Scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough onto the lined baking sheets, spacing them 1½ inches apart. Bake in the center of the oven, one baking sheet at a time, for about 12 minutes, until golden. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through. Let the cookies cool.

11. Spread small amount of Red Miso and Lemon Verbena Buttercream on bottom of one cookie then press the bottom of a second cookie into the icing.

 Notes:

*  I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips. They are a bit large when you make the cookies small for little whoopie pies. Mini chips would be better.

Red Miso Buttercream

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon red miso

½ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon fresh lemon verbena, very finly chopped

 Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the red miso at medium speed until smooth.

2. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract.

3. Stir in lemon verbena.

Notes:

This is twice as much powdered sugar as called for in the original recipe.

I have been eating the left over buttercream on a huge squash my father-in-law grew in his garden. It makes the squash very tasty and fun.