Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

Make the pumpkin whoopie pies

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, pumpkin purée, egg, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until completely combined. The batter will be like thick muffin or pancake batter.

Using a cookie or ice cream scoop if you have one, spoon mounds of batter (1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons per cookie) onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.

☞ Tester tip: If you don’t have a scoop, simply give the mound of batter a little swirl with the back of your spoon to result in a much prettier top to the cookie.

Bake the cookies until they appear set in the center, 13 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Use a spatula to gently transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Make the cream cheese frosting

In a medium bowl using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese and butter until completely smooth, about 2 minutes.

Reduce the speed to low, add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, and beat for 20 seconds. Increase the speed to high until combined, about 1 minute more.

Pair the cookies up to make sets of approximately the same shapes and sizes. Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese frosting on the flat side of 1 cookie and sandwich it with the other. Repeat with the remaining cookies and frosting.

There you go. Pumpkin whoopie pies. These are best enjoyed the day they’re made. (We don’t recommend stashing them in the fridge as the cookie gets mushy. You can individually wrap and freeze the whoopie pies for up to 3 months; let them to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Or you can instead make just the cookies, freeze and thaw them, and then make the filling just before assembling.)