Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

** This post was imported as a part of my top 30 from my old blog – What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen**

I love to bake with pumpkin and I am always looking for something new to try. That’s why I was so excited when I stumbled upon this recipe in Peabody’s blog. I’ve made several recipes from her blog before and I have never been disappointed. She is pretty much my baking idol. If you haven’t explored her blog before please, go, you won’t regret it!

This recipe is fantastic. One of my friends even had to go back for more, not because he was hungry, but because he said he couldn’t stop thinking about them. I think that overindulgence of that kind is the highest compliment a baker can get. So needless to say they were a hit. I look forward to making these for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

(Source: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito as seen on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 TBSP cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup canola oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 TBSP maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Ingredients
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

Directions
Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoopie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.