Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

This recipe was posted on a friend's blog. Though I really hate the name of these, I'm very partial to pumpkin and cream cheese and just had to try them! I made them for my parents' Halloween party last week (there's a picture on the previous post). I'll post the recipe as it was and then add the changes I made.

2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups solid pack pumpkin puree
2 eggs
3 cups flour (I use slightly heaping cups in MA)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (or ½ T. ground ginger, ½ T. ground cloves)

Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly grease baking sheets. Combine the oil and brown sugar. Mix in pumpkin and eggs, beating well. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 tsp. vanilla, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets (I fit 12 on an industrial cookie sheet). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will spread quite a bit, but if they seem really thin, you may need to add a bit more flour. Let cookies cool completely; then make sandwiches from two cookies filled with Cream Cheese Whoopie Pie Filling. It’s usually best to let them sit for a few hours after putting the sandwiches together so the filling can set a little bit.

For filling: Beat 3 egg whites until white, fluffy, and thick. Add 8 oz. cream cheese, softened. Mix until smooth. Add 2 tsp. vanilla, then 4 cups powdered sugar; mix well. Add 4-6 more cups of powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached (total of 8-10 cups). I like the filling to be somewhat thick, so it doesn’t slide out of the cookies when put together.

Yield: 18 pies.

I added lots of extra flour at the beginning, so they didn't spread much. They were super thick and then I loaded them with filling, so it was difficult to fit my mouth around them when they were done! So tasty though. I was a little nervous about a filling with raw eggs, especially since they'd be in the car for a time while I ran errands on the way to my mom's, so I left out the eggs and added 4 T of butter. I kept everything else the same, though I didn't measure the powdered sugar. I just added a bunch and whipped it really well until it seemed about right. I will definitely make these again!