Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
As we end a week surrounded by so much devastation, my husband and I are so thankful that our family, building and neighborhood are experiencing much normalcy. We are only 2 miles from Dumbo, less than a mile from Red Hook and a block from the G0wanus Canal, we expected much flooding but were miraculously spared from nearly all effects and after effects from Hurricane Sandy. Being home together for 6 days, the apartment is staying relatively clean, dinner is ready early every night and I have found the time to enjoy the comfort of baking, just for us, just because. Although the kids have bags and bags of sweet candies, last night I was craving a different kind of treat – pumpkin whoopie pies.
I experience my first pumpkin whoopie pie just a month ago at One Girl Cookies in my Brooklyn neighborhood. I probably mentioned wanting one everyday since then and my husband has offered to go get me more on several occasions. But I had known immediately at the time I ate the first pie that I must learn how to make this delicious treat at home.
I didn’t have to look very far to find the recipe, Amy Atlas had perfected it in her book Sweet Designs and additionally posted the recipe on her blog just this week. To my joy, the ingredients were all items that I already had in my pantry and last night I whipped them together. Baking in the oven, my apartment was filled with their wonderful homemade goodness and comforting aroma.
The filling is a cream cheese icing recipe also from Sweet Designs. I prefer cream cheese icing on many of my cakes and it is the perfect complement to this cake like cookie. In fact I even preferred Amy Atlas’s cream cheese icing recipe to my standby that I thought couldn’t get any better!
Macy and I couldn’t wait for the pies to cool before we were gobbling up one still hot from the tray and waiting for them to cool so we could assemble a few for dessert felt like an eternity! Honestly, the word heavenly comes to mind when I eat one, its the perfect combination of sweet and tangy with a nostalgic pumpkin pie spice taste.
A whoopie pie itself is an interesting treat, it could be described as a soft cookie. I would compare it to a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie, but much better of course because I made it at home. One 2-3 inch round pie is the perfect size to enjoy but not overindulged. I found working with the batter to be easy, it was just the right consistency to pipe out onto the parchment paper without much effort yet it stayed firm and didnt flood out of shape. Baked to perfection in 15 minutes in my hot running gas oven and well, I dont think I’ll find out know how long they stay fresh in the fridge because they won’t last a day in our home!
Cake for breakfast is a norm in our home and now whoopies pies fit the bill too! Luckily, I snapped a few pics (looking very fitting on my new Hable Construction fabric from the BKLYN sample sale last week) before we all enjoyed another round in our pj’s and I wonder now how I’m going to keep myself from eating 5 more today!
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
You can find the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie recipe in Amy Atlas’s new book Sweet Designs or on her blog HERE.
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