For those of you who aren't familiar, a whoopie pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch cake-like cookie with a creamy filling. The variations are almost endless and I plan to show quite a few varieties in the near future.
Although chocolate will forever and always have my heart, I love to make anything and everything pumpkin this time of year. It's just the right thing to do.
Let's get to it!
The Ingredients:
For the Cookies (or cakes or pies or whatever you would like to call the apparatuses used to shovel the delicious fluffy filling into your mouth)
1 Stick of Butter, Melted
1 Cup of Packed Light Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of Pumpkin Puree (Not Pumpkin Pie Filling)
1⅔ Cups of Cake Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
½ Teaspoon of Ground Ginger
¼ Teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg
For the Filling
1 Stick of Butter, Room Temp
8 oz. of Cream Cheese, Softened
1 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract
¼ Cup of Whole Milk
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
4-6 Cups of Powdered Sugar
To make the cookies (cakes) (pies) (wait, where am I?):
Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a smallish mixing bowl, sift together the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Grab a big ol' mixing bowl and dump in the melted butter and brown sugar. Whisk them together until smooth.
Now whisk in the eggs. And the pumpkin puree. And the vanilla.
Get rid of the whisk and grab a rubber spatula.
Dump the sifted dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and fold with the spatula until combined.
Now at this point you have a very important choice to make.
Not life-changing important, but almost.
Now you must decide what size to make your whoopie pies.
I know it's hard.
Feel free to make different sizes but if you do, promise me this: only one size per cookie sheet! Got it?
Okay, good.
It is my personal preference to make smaller, bite sized whoopie pies.
This is obviously because pure logic states: if you eat 3 miniature whoopie pies the caloric intake is definitely and absolutely much less than one normal size whoopie pie. And don't tell me otherwise.
Anywho.
I like to use an ice cream scoop to dollop the batter onto the cookie sheet. Because symmetry makes the world a better place. (Please don't try to find the hidden meaning in that. There is none.) At any rate, find a way to portion the batter out onto the cookie sheets. I use about 2 tablespoons worth of batter for every dollop.
Once you've got your pan full, pop them in the oven.
Here again, depending on the size you chose, the baking time will vary.
I left mine in for about 12 minutes.
You want the cakes/cookies/cakes/pies/apparatuses to spring back when you touch them gently.
When they are done, take them out and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
While you're waiting for the apparatuses (Are you sick of that word yet? I kind of like it.) to cool, go make the all-important filling!
In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and cream cheese and beat until fluffy.
Add about 2 cups of powdered sugar, the milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat (slowly as to not send powdered sugar flying all around your kitchen) until combined and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Keep adding powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time, as needed until filling is light and fluffy.
Once your pie/cookie/cake/apparatuses are nice and cool, it's time to fill them.
I like to use the same size ice cream scoop for the filling as I used for the cookies.
It makes for a healthy cookie to filling relationship and keeps my world in perfect symmetry.
Call me a perfectionist. I'm already aware.
Take one cake-cookie-pie-cake and place a scoop of fluffy white clouds from Heaven on it.
Now take a second cake-cookie-pie-cake and place it on top of the filling.
BAM!
Whoopie pie accomplished.
Repeat again and again until all whoopies are assembled.
Store in an airtight container.
For an extra special something, keep them in the fridge for a cool and refreshing treat.
To totally indulge your inner frozen-treat-lover, put some in the freezer and eat them frozen.
It will change your life.
Happy October!
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