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 Recipe
Whoopie!!! That’s what I want to say when I bite into one of these pumpkin whoopie cakes.
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!
Love Pumpkin Spice Treats?
My soft and puffy pumpkin spice cookies are full of sweet pumpkin spice flavor and are perfect for a crowd.
And my pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting is easy to make and perfect for holidays and celebrations!
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 – Make sure to use pure canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling, which contains added spices and sweeteners!
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
Buttercream filling:
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar (also known as confectioner’s 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 the wet ingredients and dry ingredients for the whoopie pie batter like you would cupcakes. Then, use a spoon or small ice cream scoop to scoop it out onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat using a 1/4 measuring cup. Don’t worry if the batter is soupy! It’s supposed to be.
- 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 bowl. A stand mixer is useful for this! The filling should be light and fluffy.
- Allow the pumpkin whoopie pies to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Pipe or spoon the filling onto the flat side of half of the whoopie cakes. Then, stack the remaining cakes on top, creating a sandwich. Enjoy!
Use a Different Filling
Not a fan of classic buttercream? Feel free to swap out the filling with marshmallow buttercream, cream cheese filling, or chocolate frosting for a unique twist on this delicious pumpkin-flavored fall treat.
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 it 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.
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.
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Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Equipment
- 2 Baking Sheets
- 1 Large Mixing Bowl
- 1 Quarter Cup Measuring Cup
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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More Easy Pumpkin Desserts:
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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread— This is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin bread recipe! This pumpkin cream cheese bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked into the middle. You’ll definitely want a second slice!
Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting— Moist pumpkin cake is topped with a creamy homemade cream cheese frosting. This easy fall dessert is perfect for Thanksgiving, Halloween, and more!
Fudgy Pumpkin Bars with Vanilla Bean Browned Butter Glaze — Bars so soft they’re like biting into pumpkin fudge! The glaze is ahh-mazing!
Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars – Super soft and are like biting into a piece of rich pumpkin fudge! Loaded with chocolate and crazy good!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread — Super soft, moist, rich pumpkin flavor, and loaded with chocolate chips! Easy, no mixer recipe that’s the best!
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars — Classic cheesecake bars get an autumnal makeover in this recipe! Sweet, pumpkin spiced, CREAMY bars with a graham cracker crust for fabulous texture! PERFECT for fall gatherings or Thanksgiving!
I really want to make your pumpkin whoopie pies. I tried another recipe of whoopie pies but they did not come out at all. Just reading your recipe it sounds like I could do this. Just one question the recipe calls for pumpkin purée. Is it the same as pure pumpkin? I just want to make sure.
Yes they are one in the same. I use Libby’s Pure Pumpkin Puree https://amzn.to/2ySyKJD
These tasted wonderful!! I love pumpkin, and this was the perfect recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth craving last night.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad you’re making pumpkin in a ‘non pumpkin’ time of year – I do the same!
Going to try this recipe tomorrow with fresh pumpkin I cooked, but instead of the cream filling I’m going to flavor some vanilla frozen yogurt with cinnamon and other spices and attempt some ice cream sandwiches for my husband when he gets home from offshore! Crossing my fingers they come out great, but I’ve baked several of your creations and haven’t been disappointed even once, so I’m confident they will be a hit!
Hope you enjoy these and thanks for trying my other recipes & glad you’re pleased!
Hi Averie, I know these are pumpkin whoopie pies, but do you think I’d be able to use oil in normal whoopie pies like you do in this recipe?
It would really depend on the recipe if you can use oil rather than I assume butter…it would just depend on the recipe you’re trying and the other ingredients involved. I mean probably you could, but you never know with baking – you sometimes just have to try and see if it works!
Thanks!
Are the current spice levels you indicate on the recipe from the first time you made it or the second one where you kicked up the spice level? I like more flavor too, but I didn’t want to double what’s now printed on the recipe and be overdoing it!
The way the recipe is written is the way I love them. Make it just like that :)
I’d like to make these for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner (and in their neck of the woods, whoopie pies are called gobs ;) ). How prominent is the white pepper taste? I use white pepper in a lot of my savory cooking and was surprised to see it listed as an ingredient here.
I omitted the white pepper (the recipe as written is from her book) because I didn’t want peppery cookies. However, I mad a half batch of her full recipe and her ratios of spices are very low-to-medium on the spice intensity level, for my tastes. I strongly recommend tasting your batter and upping the amounts of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice – basically increase them all. Taste your batter though, but for me, when I remade them and seasoned to taste, I enjoyed the cookies so much more! LMK what you end up doing!
I cooked up two fresh pumpkins today. They are all ready for me to start baking!!! Can’t wait! Thanks so much for the recipes! Now, where do I start?! :o)
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My favorite Pumpkin Recipe is Healthful Pursuit’s Pumpkin-Gingersnap Chia Puddings! So EASY and incredibly delicious!
https://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2011/11/pumpkin-gingersnap-chia-breakfast-parfaits/