Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
The classic gingerbread cookie is reinvented with the most luscious, most decadent lemon cream cheese filling!
Welcome to day 4 of #ChristmasWeek! I’m seriously so honored that both Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Jen of Juanita’s Cocina asked me to be a part of this series because it really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and try things that have been on my bucket list for quite some time now, like monkey bread and now whoopie pies.
I actually didn’t think I liked whoopie pies. The first time I had one was at Corner Bakery Cafe two years ago and it was just way too sweet for my taste. But when I saw these whoopie pies on Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, I knew I just had to make them ASAP.
I’m not sure why I was so intimidated to make whoopie pies. It’s basically a cookie recipe, a frosting recipe and then having to pipe on the frosting and sandwich the cookies.
It’s not bad at all, right? It is a bit more work than say a regular cookie but in the end, you get 2 cookies in every bite with the most heavenly cream cheese frosting in the middle with just the right amount of lemon in it.
Yeah, these are definitely better than the plain old non-frosted, non-sandwich cookies. I’m not even sure if I can even go back to those cookies now that I’ve discovered the world of whoopie pies.
Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup molasses
- ¾ cup buttermilk
For the lemon cream cheese filling
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in egg until well combined.
- With the mixer on low speed, add molasses, buttermilk and dry ingredients alternately in 3 parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated.
- Drop tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking sheet. Place into oven and bake until edges are golden brown but center is still moist, about 10-12 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and cream cheese on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add powdered sugar, beating just until incorporated. Add vanilla and lemon zest. Increase speed to medium high and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- To assemble the whoopie pies, divide the filling among half the cookies, spreading out to the edges, then top with remaining cookies.
Did you make this recipe?
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Does this yield 36 whoopie pies or 36 cookies (making 18 whoopie pies)?
The recipe should yield about 36 whoopie pies.
Do you by chance have pumpkin Whoopie pies? I love everything pumpkin.
Thank you
Dana
Not at this time – sorry!
Can these be frozen?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Do you store them at room temperature?
You can store them at room temperature for up to 2-3 days.
Great recipe! I think I’ll make these for my supervisors at work as little Christmas goody bags! Can I substitute maple syrup for the molasses?
Unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment.
Chungah, this is such a neat recipe. I have used your template several times now. The results are always wonderful.
I would love to feature this recipe on my site as a must try for the winter season. To that effect I would like to use a picture of the whoopie pies with the proper citations of course. It will be published on the 1st of December, if it is alright by you.
Thank you in advance,
cheers!
I’ve read and re-read the directions and am unclear on when to do dry ingred. One step says add to sugar and then the next line states adding liquid and then dry ingred. Am I missing something?
Kat, the “dry ingredients” refers to the second step of mixed ingredients (flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt).
I’m confused about this as well. What is the flour mixture that step 3 refers to? Seems like the recipe has the dry ingredients added twice — in steps 3 and 4.
The dry ingredients should only be added in step 4. Hope that helps!
Did you use fresh grated ginger or ground ginger?
I used ground ginger.
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