Sugar Rush

Howdy Doodies. It's late and it's rainin' and I am looking to curl up in bed with my book BUT I thought I would share a great recipe with ya before I hit the hay tonight. I have been making pumpkin whoopie pies for the bakery and man are they good. If you are headed to a Halloween party this coming weekend bring a mess of these and people will be lovin' you for real.



They are moist, loaded with spices and filled with a maple cream cheese frosting. Get back! It's delicious bitches! I have even had people that hate pumpkin say that these are damn fine eatin'.

Without further ado.... here's the recipe. It's from none other than Martha Freakin' Stewart y'all.

FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cloves

2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Martha uses a straight up cream cheese frosting filling but I prefer to add to the warm fuzziness of these treats by filling 'em with a maple cream cheese...

For the maple cream cheese filling:
3 cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the cookies....

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop* with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.

* I use a medium sized scoop.... I like my cookies a bit larger.

For the filling....

To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined. Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful not to over beat the filling or it will lose structure.


I keep these in the fridge after I put them together... they should keep pretty well for two or three days (Ha!)

We are really cranking stuff out at the bakery trying to get stocked up for the coming weekend. I made some great gluten free chocolate cupcakes tonight that I am pretty stoked about. Yup, they are the ones you see on the new header. I also made gluten free chocolate chip cookies and then sandwiched them together with vanilla butter cream. Woo Hoo!

Who has a great Halloween costume planned? Anybody? I am trying for one. I have a thing I am trying to do. Could be good... or it could end up being super stupid. We shall see come Sunday. We went to a pumpkin carving party just the other night... here are the faces we created. Please note Billy's creepy pumpkin off to the far left with the beady little eyes. Yuck Billy. Mine is the one on the top right. I always go for the classic, wicked jack-o-lantern face myself.




We will be moving into our new apartment sometime in the next week so forgive me if I go MIA for a minute. Have a great Halloween weekend!