pumpkin whoopie pies.

My first time making a whoopie pie, and I think we can be good friends.

I made pumpkin whoopie pies today, leaving me with only 1 cup of pumpkin left in the fridge. (No...!) But it was worth it. These baked up moist, cakey and springy, and sandwiched in between is a finger-lickin' good cream cheese frosting, tweaked to suit my taste. I also changed the original recipe a bit. I substituted 3/4 of the oil for applesauce, which made me feel alot better because...

I made a giant one, all for myself. With walnuts and pecans of course! Yeah, I'm a selfish greedy pig.

It was like a mini hamburger! As much as I would like to wrap my mouth around it and take a chunk out, I couldn't. So I did the next best thing- I split it into half, duh. Any method works for me as long as I could get it into my mouth. I spent a delicious 1 1/2 hours polishing off this little monster.

Now I know why some recipes direct us to spread out the batter. The larger surface area produced would have a better filling-to-cookie ratio. Still, the little mounds looked so cute!

As good as these were, they were just shy of perfect. The recipe called for dark brown sugar which was a little overpowering in my opinion. Next time, I would just use normal brown sugar. The whoopie pies could be a bit more spicy, like the pumpkin muffins I'd made before. The amount of sugar used seemed like too much at first, but it really wasn't that sweet. In fact, I think I can even stomach more sweetness. Not that I want to, but you get my point.

I often find cream cheese frostings, fillings, etc. too sweet so I like to use my own ratios. Also, I find the use of butter rather redundant so I omit it. What I did was to take for every 100g low fat cream cheese, add 4 tablespoons icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. That's it! You'll get a cream cheese filling that's still slightly tangy and definitely not too sweet. 

This recipe is Martha Stewart's, obtained via UNE GAMINE DANS LA CUISINE, one of my favourite blogs.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

Cookie Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cloves

2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar (I would use normal brown sugar)

1 cup vegetable oil (I used 180 ml unsweetened applesauce and 60 ml oil)

3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Method:
Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.
Make the filling: Sift confectioner' sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)
Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.