Chocolate Coconut Cream Whoopie Pies

For the cakes:
Preheat oven to 425 F.

Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream it until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes on “high” with an electric mixer. Set aside.

Whisk together flours, flax, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Measure milk into a small bowl and add coffee and vanilla.

Add egg into the creamed butter, continue to mix. Add portions of the milk and flour mixtures, alternating between the two and beginning and ending with the milk.

Pipe or spoon batter onto parchment paper or Silipat-lined baking sheets in either 1 tablespoon- or 2 tablespoon-sized mounds, spacing them 2 inches apart. Whack the pan on the counter to flatten the mounds a bit.

Bake the smaller mounds for 5-7 minutes and the larger mounds for 7-9 minutes. They are done when they are “springy” to the touch. Remove pan from oven. Cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting:
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, whip the butter and coconut oil until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
Add the powdered sugar and continue to whip on “high”. Try to incorporate all of the coconut oil to avoid having little chunks.

Add the vanilla. Continue to whip until completely emulsified. If the frosting is too thick, dribble in some of the cream. Thicken the frosting by adding more sugar. If the frosting begins to separate, whip on “high” and add more sugar.

Put the toasted coconut on a plate. Stuff a generous mound of the coconut butter-cream between two cakes, and roll the sides of the sandwich through the toasted coconut.

Notes:
The coconut sugar gives it a darker, richer flavor, but takes a while to cream it together with the butter. It is OK to still have some small granules. I like to make my whoopee pies in both a “hand” size, and in a mini version. The larger size is about 2 tablespoons piped (or spooned) to the size of a silver dollar. The mini ones are about 1 tablespoon size, about the size of a quarter.

Recipe is based on one that I found on epicourious, but I’ve tweaked it over the years.