Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I'm in love with pumpkin right now. All things pumpkin all the time is what I've been thinking about. Even though I've been roasting up my own sugar pie pumpkins that I grew in the garden almost every day (I have 8 left, I started with 13.) I went to the Olympia Farmers Market today to buy more. Sounds pretty crazy, but I want to eat and experience different varieties that I have an interest in to see if they are worthy of garden space next year. I went home with an orange Kabocha squash that looks like a pumpkin, and I took home a beautiful white pumpkin called "Lumina".
More pumpkin stuff to come, sweet and savory.

These pumpkin whoopie pies are my new favorite thing. I sent some to my husband's work and I also took a batch to a party, and they were loved by all. They are all of the things a whoopie pie should be, moist, soft, spicy pumpkin cake with a yummy cinnamon cream cheese filling.

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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

adapted from this recipe. This recipe makes about 20 small whoopie pies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1 15 oz can pumpkin (make sure it's pure pumpkin, not pie filling)
2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light olive oil (or other neutral oil)
2 TBS molasses
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups all purpose flour

For Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3-4 cups sifted powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 and cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together pumpkin, eggs, sugar, oil and molasses.

In another bowl add flour, salt, spices, and baking soda.

Add flour mixture to wet mixture and beat together, make sure all is incorporated.

Scoop batter onto cookie sheets lined with parchment. I used a medium sized cookie scoop, about 1-1 1/2 Tablespoons in size. If you don't have a cookie scoop I'd use a tablespoon for this task to make sure they are all the same size.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes.

Cool completely then make sandwiches with frosting.

Frosting Instructions

While cookies are baking, add the cream cheese and butter to a bowl of stand mixer. Beat together until whipped, 3 minutes or so, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Or alternately, use a large bowl and hand mixer, beat well.
Add the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, 3 cups first, then beat well. Add more if you wish your frosting to be more stiff. Add cinnamon to taste, I'd start with 1 teaspoon, and go from there. I ended up using 2 to 2 1/2. This amount will also depend how fresh or what variety of cinnamon you are using, and your taste of course.

You will probably have frosting left over. It freezes well. Or add a little milk to it and use it as a frosting for cinnamon rolls. Or use it as a filling for my next whoopie pie recipe coming soon! Banana whoopie pies, stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

As a side note: Look at all of these pumpkin recipes at NY Times.com!