Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Published October 22, 2018

With Halloween approaching, I decided to jump into a recipe that has festive, fall ingredients. Inspired by Halloween’s take-away treats, I decided to make my own on-the-go dessert: whoopie pies.

The History of the Whoopie Pie

Classic Flavors

For those of you who call them something different, whoopie pies are two, chocolate “cake” style sandwiches held between a layer of marshmallow or vanilla filling.

Origins

According to my research, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania lay claim to the origin of the whoopie pie.

Maine considers whoopie pie’s to be their go-to dessert, serving whoopie pie’s the size of hamburgers. While Massachusetts claims to have baked and sold whoopie pies as early as the 1930s. But, of course, if you’ve traveled to the Amish country of Pennsylvania, you’ve seen these packaged treats sold in farm stands and markets.

My Whoopie Pie Inspiration

I’ve seen the classic, chocolate whoopie pies sold at bake sales. I always wondered how difficult it would be to make (especially the filling).

This week’s recipe is both a check-mark off the culinary “to make” list and a fun recipe for fall.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Ingredients

As I was researching the main ingredients for whoopie pie’s I realized I didn’t have chocolate or coco powder for the cake…but I did have a can of pumpkin puree.

I was searching for fall spices that would boost the pumpkin flavor. Canned pumpkin is pretty mellow. If I had enough time I would’ve made the pumpkin puree from scratch.

Just like the spices that go in PSL’s this recipe calls for nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Instructions

Creating and baking the cookies was straightforward. Stirring the ingredients takes the most amount of time. If you have a kitchen aid or electric whisks, it’ll be faster.

For first time recipes, I like to do everything by hand, so that I remember the steps and process.

My Thoughts

Final Product

The whoopie pies were amazing. I am really happy with how this recipe turned out.

I made my cookies a little larger, so once they were baked and sandwiched together they were about the size of a small apple. You can make smaller, thinner cookie-sandwiches by scooping smaller amounts of the dough before baking.

Because of the thickness of my cookie-sandwich, I put on a thicker layer of the cream cheese icing. Most of this is preference. You may need to double your batch of cream cheese icing, if you bake the way I do. The last two whoopie pies didn’t get as much icing as the first batch.

The Flavor

The pumpkin flavor was subtle. I was glad for the fall spices to boost it.

This recipe calls for a lot of sugar. As you know, I’m not a fan of overly-sweet desserts, so I was nervous about adding that much. But, the whoopie pies were savory, with the sweet-tang from the cream cheese icing.

The cookie-sandwich was a cross between a cake-texture with a cookie top. It was fresh from the oven (but not warm), since you don’t want the icing to melt.

Storage

In total, this recipe made 18 cookies, and 9 sandwiches. I only had 3 sandwiches left by the time the kitchen was cleaned. Since the cream cheese icing has butter in it, I observed that as it sits at room-temperature, the icing color changes from a bright white, to a cream-color.

There is nothing wrong with this, as my family finished the rest of the whoopie pies after dinner. I will have to test how refrigeration and reheating changes the quality. This is an FYI in case you bake these in advance.

K. Martinelli Makes Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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