cakey, pumpkiny and sweet!
Have you heard about the Red Barn Roundup? It’s a come-as-you-are happenin’ over on the east side of town which foregos all pretension and fluff. It’s a bring your best homemade covered dish to share, crack a PBR, drink wine out of a plastic cup and listen to a 6 piece live bluegrass band play in a carport lit with twinkle lights kind of a party. It’s an opportunity to meet your neighbors, to dance and to eat sweet homemade treats. If you have heard about the RBR, chances are you are friends with hosts Allison or Kathryn. These lovely ladies could be the official ambassadors of Nashville, as they seem to know just about everyone! I am always surprised at the people I end up bumping into at the RBR… not just people from my industry, but famous peeps too! Like “Deacon” from the Nashville tv show, one of the Black Keys, or even a former food stylist from Martha Stewart Living. (I must be gaining my Nashville cred now that I’m name-dropping B-list celebrity sightings, ha!) Usually, I share my spicy fudgy cocoa cookies but feeling the pull of Nashville in Autumn, I decided to instead make something new; Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.
first time RBR’er, Melissa, listening to Off the Wagon’s bluegrass tunes!
Pumpkin whoopee pies take some advance preparation and thought. Thanks to: “so, how’s it taste?”, Leah for the whoopie pie inspiration and cream cheese frosting recipe. This below recipe, however, is inspired by one I found on the Cooking Channel’s site and also in memory of Rumba’s carrot cake with garam masala ice cream. (Ah Rumba, how we all miss you.) I’ve added a few extra ingredients of my own to punch up the warm fall flavors.
whole lotta ingredients!
First things first, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and soda, ground cloves, nutmeg, garam masala, ginger and salt into a large bowl and set aside. Using your KitchenAide mixer (or a hand mixer), beat the butter and both sugars together until well-blended. Gradually beat in the oil. I used canola oil, but vegetable will also work if that’s all you have. Add the eggs to the mixer, then the pumpkin. Start incorporating your dry ingredients from the set-aside bowl in four parts, scraping down the sides of your mixing bowl as needed. In-between adding the dry mixture, alternate adding in the milk. It will look like this when fully incorporated…
it’s soupy, but that’s OK!
Cover with saran and chill in the fridge for an hour. I had my doubts at this point because the batter was SUPER soupy, but I persevered and ended up with light, moist and fluffy cake cookies. It IS after all, cake batter, so don’t freak out at the soupiness.
While the batter is chilling, make your frosting. You can use cream cheese or neufchâtel cheese (which lower in calories, if you are caring at this point), I went with neufchâtel and it worked beautifully. Sift the confectioner’s sugar into a medium-sized bowl. In your KitchenAide mixer (or hand-held mixer), beat butter and neufchâtel cheese until blended. Slowly add in the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Beat until creamy and no lumps are present.
Time for whoopie making; pie that is! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. I am not a baker so I do not have a pastry piping bag. A large gallon ziplock works just as well though! I spooned a few cupfuls of the pie batter into the ziplock and snipped one of the points off and piped perfect (well, almost perfect) rounds onto the parchment paper.
almost perfect rounds…
Mine took 18 minutes per sheet. Once the cookies have cooled, fill another ziplock with the frosting and pipe frosting onto the flat side of one cookie cake.
clearly I need to practice my piping skills…
It’s best if you start on the outside of the circle and work your way to the center when piping on the frosting. Top with the other cookie cake and you are finished!
the perfect spicy, warm, fall cookie!
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Cook time: 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes
Makes: 24-36 pies
Ingredients:
Pumpkin pie cookie:
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 can of 15 oz organic pure pumpkin purée
- 1/2 cup of whole milk
Frosting:
- 3 cups of confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- 1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 8 oz neufchâtel cheese, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, garam masala, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, baking powder and soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Using your KitchenAide mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars until well-blended. Gradually beat in the oil and then the eggs, one egg at a time. Add the can of pumpkin purée. Gradually start adding in the ingredients from your dry bowl mixture. In-between adding the dry ingredients, alternate with splashes of milk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Cover with saran and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and fill a ziplock bag with a couple of cupfuls of the pumpkin batter. Snip one end and pipe 12 pies per baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the pie comes out cleanly. Let the cakes cool completely before adding frosting.
4. For the frosting, using a mixer, cream the neufchâtel and butter together until no lumps are present. Add the vanilla. Sift 3 cups of confectioner’s sugar into a large separate bowl. Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar to the cheese and butter mixture and mix until smooth.
5. Pipe the frosting onto the flat half of one pie. Top with another flat half of pie. Store in an airtight container in a single layer.
Now I am even more bummed out I showed up to RBR a MINUTE too late and missed out on the yumminess!