When cooking and baking, I try not to make it a habit of wasting ingredients.  After dinner last night I had just about a full can of pumpkin puree to use up.  What better way to use it up than a whoopie pie?  

    Traditionally, a whoopie pie is made from two chocolate cookie cakes with a sweet white frosting in the middle.  There is a great debate over whether the whoopie pie was created first in Pennsylvania, Maine or New Hampshire.  To stake it’s claim, Maine went ahead and named their state treat the whoopie pie.  As resident of Amish country almost my entire life, you would think that I would have made tons of these little treats.  Surprisingly, this is the first time I have ever made them. 

   Pumpkin whoopie pies are my favorite, though ONLY when with a cream cheese frosting.  I was glad for an excuse to make these and found a great recipe from Epicurious.  You need only two bowls to mix all of the ingredients in.  As for the frosting, I did not love this recipe and needed to modify it a little bit.  It seemed a bit loose so I added 4 extra tablespoons of cream cheese and 2 extra tablespoons of unsalted butter.  What I did like about this recipe was adding bourbon instead of vanilla extract.  YUM!  Next time I make these, I will use my mascarpone cream cheese frosting.  

   When I pulled the cakes out of the oven, they puffed and round.  After they cooled, I used a frosting filled ziplock bag, snipped off the end, and piped a dollop of frosting onto the cakes.  What I love about a whoopie pie is that its like a cupcake that has an equal and balanced distribution of frosting with each bite.  In fact, when I eat a cupcake, I break off part of the bottom and make it look like a whoopie pie!  These cakes were perfectly moist and the frosting had a perfect balance of sweetness.  

    Enjoy these delicious treats in your home, straight from Amish country.  

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

From Epicurious

Cookie-cakes:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices in a bowl.

Whisk together sugar, oil, pumpkin, egg, and vanilla in a separate large bowl until well combined, then stir in flour mixture.

Using a small ice cream scoop or small cookie scoop such as the small pampered chef scoop and drop cookies onto waxed paper 2 inches apart.  You should be able to get around 20-24 cookies.

Bake until springy to the touch, 12 to 18 minutes. Transfer cookie-cakes to rack to cool.

Cream Cheese Filling:

Modified from Epicurious

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 ½-2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional; substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Combine cream cheese and butter in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and mix on medium high for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Turn to low and slowly add confectioner’s sugar.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add 1 T of bourbon or pure vanilla extract.  

If mixture seems loose, try places in refrigerator before piping onto cookie cakes.  

*Store extra whoopie pies in the refrigerator in an airtight container.