I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Ours was fantastic.
Even though Thanksgiving is over, I still have a hankering for some pumpkin themed desserts. Perhaps I didn’t get enough pumpkin pie this year.
Ever since I made whoopie pies for the dessert buffet at our wedding, I’ve been completely obsessed with them. They are the combination of two of my favorite things—cookies and icing—and it doesn’t hurt that you can just pop them right in your mouth, no fork needed.
Besides giving the cookies a little variety by adding pumpkin and spices, I decided to spice up the traditional cream cheese frosting by infusing it with a little maple syrup. If you don’t have any handy or if you don’t like it, feel free to substitute vanilla extract instead. Your whoopie pie won’t be nearly as festive but they will still be sinfully delicious.
Also for you vegans out there, you can pick up non-dairy cream cheese at Trader Joes. It doesn’t have the same thickness as regular cream cheese, so I would suggest keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to make your icing.
Ingredients:
Pies
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup vegan margarine
- 1 15 ounce can pumpkin
- 1/4 cup almond milk plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or 1 egg)
Icing
- 1/4 cup vegan margarine
- 4 ounces vegan cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream margarine, applesauce, brown sugar, and pumpkin. Then add almond milk and lemon juice and stir until combined.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add one third of the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. Stir until combined. Repeat until all dry ingredients are added.
Then prepare a cookie sheet with nonstick spray. Add 2 tablespoons of your pumpkin batter per cookie until you’ve filled up the pan.
Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes.
Then remove to cool on cooling rack.
While the cookies are cooling, in a large bowl, cream margarine, cream cheese, and maple syrup. Then add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat on medium high for 2 minutes. Repeat until all powdered sugar is added.
Add your icing to a piping bag, flip one of the cookies over, add a large dollop of icing, and then add another cookie on top.
To protect you whoopie pies, allow them to set for 30 minutes and then wrap them individually in saran wrap.
I love the homemade vibe of these whoopie pies. Sure I could make them perfect if I got a whoopie pie pan but imperfect baked goods always taste better—shows a little more home grown love I think.
You can make these whoopie pies as small or as large as you like. I made a couple whoppers toward the end when I was running out of daylight.
These suckers are definitely reserved for the mister. I don’t think my waistline could handle them.
But whether big or small, these whoopie pies will surely remind you of the Thanksgivings you spent around your family’s table munching on pumpkin pie. No worries the next one is only 51 weeks away.
