Anyone who did not get the Die Hard movie reference, I oh-so-politely demand that you watch this video asap (even better of course would be to watch the movie. Or movies? Farrah – remember our Die Hard Trilogy fest? (because it was still just a trilogy at the time….as it maybe should’ve remained in my humble opinion)).
I have never in my life had a whoopie pie, and though I have seen them before in various baking blogs that I am wont to read, I’ve never really paid them that much mind and didn’t even really know exactly what they were. I had kind of assumed they were just sandwich cookies. Turns out though, they’re not really cookies at all, the sandwich part of these is actually made of a cake base. Which, technically speaking, means they are the worst named food ever. They look like sandwich cookies (which, as I just said, they are not), and they’re named “pies” (which they are also not). Whoopie Lies is what they should really be called 😉 .
Whoopie pies are apparently the official state treat of Maine in case you were interested. There’s even a town in Maine that has a Whoopie pie festival every year. A reason to take a trip to Maine? I say yes. In my two second visit to their website, I made sure to take note of the fact that they have 25 cent samples. Sure, the drive or flight there would completely obliterate any savings here, but I have a way around that for you too. Stow away. Now it’s an adventure! (which may or may not end up with you in prison. And by “may or may not” I mean “most definitely will”. Please don’t bring up my name during your arraignment 😉 ).
For some reason though, I got to thinking about these recently. Maybe because they were showing up more in other blogs, or maybe because my mind has been even more open than usual to new things lately since I’ve started thinking about potential new additions to my Christmas cookie extravaganza. I wanted to test drive these and see how well they freeze (FYI – very well, so huzzah! I would actually say, once defrosted from the freezer, they ended up even better and moister than the ones I didn’t freeze. Weird, but I’m not complaining 🙂 . Some variation of these – possibly chocolate peppermint, or even just these in their current incarnation – will show up on the Christmas treat table this year. Stay tuned. – and yes, I know it’s barely September and you’re all glaring evil daggers at me for even thinking of Christmas. But you try baking sixteen or more things and not starting until December. You will find yourself drowning in sugar, but not in a fun and delicious sweet-sweet death way. More in a horribly frazzled and panicked way, and nobody wants that. That will lead to stress eating, and then all your baking will be for nought since you’ll be eating it all as fast as you can bake it 😉 ).
One of the things I find not-so-fun about making traditional sandwich cookies, is the whole rolling out the dough, using cookie cutters, re-rolling out the dough etc. I guess normally it’s not too bad, but at Christmas time, having things that are a smite less labour intensive is always a boon. Because these are more cake like, you actually just spoon a blob of dough onto your cookie sheet and bake it. How easy is that? Also, if you were super lazy, you wouldn’t even need to make icing, you could just buy some ready made stuff, or maybe just sandwich these together with whatever spread you had handy (pb+j anyone? Or maple butter? Oooo…or maybe cookie dough? That sounds amazing!! Now I want to remake these with cookie dough filling! Whoah there cowboy, slow down, one thing at a time Amber, perhaps finish writing this blog post, then finish eating your currently made cookies. Then maybe cookie dough filled whoopie pies). If you wanted to be the complete epitome of lazy, you could even go so far as to just buy boxed cake mix and make them that way. At that point, the only way you could put less effort into it, is if you just go somewhere and buy one. So many delicious options available.
So get out there and Whoop(ie) it up, and enjoy the last vestiges of summer and the start to fall. Trust me, you’ll “fall” in love with these, and as a lover of baked goods I “autumn” know 😉 .
Yield: 2 dozen mini whoopie pies
Ingredients
- 1 cup pastry flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (or just do 2 cups all purpose flour if that’s all you have)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons molasses
- 1/4 cup vegan butter, melted
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 2 cups canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)
- 1 egg replacer
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup vegan cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon whisky
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a couple of baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
- In a medium sized bowl, sift together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices
- In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, molasses, butter, coconut oil, pumpkin, egg replacer and vanilla until smooth and well combined.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a mixing spoon.
- Using either a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, scoop batter into small mounds on your baking sheet. They don’t really spread out much when baking, so an inch or two between each cookie should be more than enough.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cookies spring back slightly when touched. Allow to cool while making the filling.
- Using a hand mixer blend together the cream cheese, butter, maple syrup and whisky until combined. Slowly mix in the icing sugar and blend until fully incorporated. Add more icing sugar if it’s not thick enough or a bit more vegan butter if it’s too thick.
- Spread the frosting between two cookies to create a sandwich.
- Store in the refrigerator.
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