Pumpkin Whoopie Pies — Soft and tender pumpkin cookies with a thick layer of sweet buttercream sandwiched between them will make you scream “Whoopie!” for one of these fun pies. They’re easy and fast to make, moist, and rich!
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Best Ever Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Whoopie!!! That’s what I want to say when I bite into one of these.
If you’ve never eaten a homemade whoopie pie, it’s essentially rich buttercream filling that’s sandwiched between two very soft and tender cookies. It doesn’t get much better!
I just wanted to pick off these little morsels and squish them between my fingers. The cookies are soft and remind me of my days squishing Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies as a kid.
Buttercream is layered on thick and in plentiful abundance. The only way frosting and fillings should be!
Ingredients for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
To make this spiced pumpkin whoopie pie recipe, you’ll need:
Whoopie pies:
- Brown sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Pure pumpkin puree
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
Buttercream filling:
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar
- Unsalted butter
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Making homemade pumpkin whoopie pies with buttercream frosting is much, much simpler than you might think! Here’s an overview of the baking process:
- Whisk together the whoopie pie batter like you would cupcakes, then scoop it out onto Silpat-lined baking sheets using a 1/4 measuring cup.
- Bake the cookies just until set, noting that they’ll firm up as they cool.
- While the cookies cool, combine the buttercream filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl. A stand mixer is useful for this! The filling should be light and fluffy.
- Let the pumpkin whoopie pies cool completely before sandwiching with the filling. Either pipe it on, or simply use a spoon.
A Few Tips for Shaping the Whoopie Pies
The batter for the cookies is like pumpkin cupcake batter. As I was pouring it onto baking sheets, I was thinking, am I really doing this? It was so soupy, and I was worried, but it turns out I had no reason to be.
I hate dealing with piping bags but if you think that would be easier, be my guest. I just don’t like that so much of the precious cargo gets stuck to the sides and is wasted.
I used a one-quarter cup measuring cup and scooped batter from the mixing bowl onto baking trays, not quite filling the cup full.
Because there’s a decent amount of oil in the batter, it slid right out of the measuring cup. Like butter.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, some people make the filling with vegetable shortening, but I prefer butter in my buttercream, because the flavor can’t be beat. However, the advantage to using shortening is that is has much more structure than butter and so the filling is firmer, holds up better, and has more density and less squish than a butter-based buttercream.
Yes, you can freeze the assembled homemade whoopie pies or freeze the cookies and frosting separately. If freezing the assembled pumpkin whoopie pies, be sure to wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then seal them in a freezer bag. This prevents the buttercream filling from oozing out and also prevents the cookies from sticking to each other.
Definitely! You can make the spiced pumpkin whoopie pies up to 3 days before serving them. They’ll remain moist if stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Other Frostings You Can Use to Fill Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
My family loves the creamy buttercream frosting used in this homemade pumpkin whoopie pie recipe, but you can also sandwich together the cookies using:
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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
For the Buttercream Filling
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted and divided
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
Instructions
For the Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 325°F and line two baking sheets with Silpat liners or parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine first 11 ingredients, up to the salt, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the remaining ingredients, and mix until just combined; don’t overmix. Batter will be soft and runny.
- Using a one-quarter cup measure, scoop the batter onto prepared baking sheets, six round mounds of batter per sheet; this may also be done with a pastry bag if preferred.
- Bake for about 12 to 14 minutes, or until tops have set. Cookies will be very soft and may look underdone, but firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before moving them to rack to finish cooling.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before filling and sandwiching them together. While they cool, make the filling.
For the Buttercream Filling:
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the milk, vanilla extract, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar, then mix on high speed until the mixture is creamy and light.
- Add butter and remaining cup of sugar, and whip on high speed until very light, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Apply a generous dollop of frosting to 6 of the cookies. Sandwich them together with the remaining unfrosted 6 cookies, creating 6 whoopie pies.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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great
Dear Averie thank you for answering my question so fast. In the mean time I tried your recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies. I was very pleased with the results. I didn’t even use my whoopie pie pan. I just followed your recipe exactly. I was very proud of them.
I’m so glad you had success with my recipe! Glad they worked out great and you didn’t even need to use your whoopie pie pan!