Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

October and December are probably two of my largest baking months. I try to make as many Halloween or Christmas themed desserts as possible. Halloween is my favorite holiday, after all. Pumpkin is my mother’s favorite flavor of anything, ever (I personally hate it). She’ll eat anything pumpkin, and we have to stock up on as many cans of pumpkin puree as possible while it’s in season, in case she craves it in the middle of June. Whoopie pies are also one of her favorite desserts. So for Halloween, I decided I’d decorate them with ganache to look like Jack o’Lanterns. I’ve heard chocolate and pumpkin is a good combination, but I don’t know. My mother didn’t seem to especially like it, and if I ever do it again, I’ll probably make white chocolate colored yellow to decorate them.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 cups chilled pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.
Gradually add flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
Using a large pastry tip of your choice, pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling. They will look more like mini cakes then cookies, so don’t panic about that.

Filling

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 1 tbsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the fluff and beat until combined.
Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

Chocolate Ganache (to decorate)

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream, at room temperature

In a double boiler, heat chocolate and heavy cream. Stir together until melted and combined. Pipe or drizzle over tops of whoopie pies.