Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (October Cookie Carnival)
This month’s Cookie Carnival recipe is for pumpkin whoopie pies. When I saw the email, I thought they’d be Pumpkin with a cream cheese filling. I’ve seen quite a few recipes floating around for those. But these are chocolate cookies with pumpkin filling. That way they’re black and orange for Halloween 🙂 The recipe is from Martha and you can even watch her make them with Cookie Monster here.
I’ve never made whoopie pies before so this was fun for me. The chocolate cookie batter is very chocolatey and delicious 🙂 The filling is also great. It only uses 1/4 cup of pumpkin, so it looks like I’m going to be making something else pumpkin-ey soon. I’m looking forward to that! Next time I’ll definitely make a double batch of the filling. I thought the cookie somewhat overwhelmed the pumpkin filling. But overall, these were great and I’ll definitely be making these again. Probably very soon.
Mini Pumpkin Whoopie pies – from Martha Stewart – makes ~20
For the Cookies1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk – I used soymilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Filling4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Prepare cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.
Place butter, shortening, and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla. Mix in remaining flour mixture.
Drop about 2 teaspoons dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool 10 minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheets and transfer to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely.
Prepare filling: In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whip until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
Pipe or spoon about 2 teaspoons filling on the flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping the flat sides down.






I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 






I have my tried and true ATK version but I always love discovering new chocolate chip cookie recipes!
Brown butter makes everything better!
I am pretty boring with chocolate chip cookies and stick with the recipe on the back of the bag, but the size of these and the twist on ingredients makes me want to give these a go!
I use half the bag of chips too – I like them that way! 🙂 I might have to give this one a shot – I really liked the brown butter oatmeal chocolate chip I made last week.
I love trying new ccc recipes also. Â You don’t mention what the texture of the cookie is. Â I like crispy edges and chewy centers, very hard to find.
Well, I know what’s happening with the half block of cream cheese in my fridge just waiting to be used up! Cookies are in my future, score. 😉
I love adding sea salt to chocolate things! I haven’t tried it on chocolate chip cookies, but it sounds delicious.
These look awesome, I am still searching for the perfect recipe!
The cookies sound amazing!  I love the addition of cream cheese!  CC is my favorite cookie and I am terrified to make them because I have no self control.  I love the dough and I love the cookie!! Â
These sound like they take the best components of all my favorite cookies (browned butter, a sprinkling of sea salt) and merge them together.
I always stick with Tollhouse cookies. I need to open my eyes to the wide world of chocolate chip cookies varieties out there!
I made these today and they were fantastic–thanks for sharing the recipe! (*^_^*)
aahh this is recipe that i looking for to make choco chip cookies… thank you for post it 🙂
Made these but didn’t know you have to refrigerate the dough prior to baking hope they come out okay!
beantownbaker — January 5th, 2013 @ 4:31 pm
They should still turn out ok. They might spread a bit more than mine do. Let me know how they come out!
Made these with the kiddies today and WOW! They are delicious! It made a lot of dough though (I made smaller cookies than the recipe called for), can I freeze the dough in small balls?
Making these today! Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I have another great brown butter choc chip recipe but never tried with cream cheese. Thought I would share my tip for the sea salt…I love a salted cookie! I wait until the cookies have cooled 5 minutes before sprinkling, it’s not too hot that the salt sinks into the batter but not too cold that the salt just bounces off.
These look amazing! I am definitely going to make them!