Apple Spice Whoopie Pies

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Apple Spice Whoopie Pies

January 23, 2012 by Bake, Run, Live

WHOOPIE!!!

As in hooray! Come on people, behave yourselves!

We celebrated Nick’s birthday the other day, and I asked him what I could bake for him. “You know what I like” was his response.
Now on one hand, this makes things easy. I can choose basically whatever I want to make. On the other hand, this makes things more difficult. There are so many things I could make! I was given no direction (like- “I’d really like a cheesecake”, or “brownies would be great”).

Sigh.

One thing I know he REALLY likes, is cream cheese frosting. So I decided whatever I made, I had to incorporate that. Spice cake and carrot cake both work well with cream cheese frosting, so I decided to make something similar. Apple Spice Whoopie Pies. A slightly spicy batter with grated apples mixed in. I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, in order to achieve a more cake-like texture. I also added vanilla bean paste to the frosting for a little more added flavor. The whoopie pies are a delightful combination of flavors, and they were an enjoyable dessert for Nick’s birthday!

Apple Spice Whoopie Pies (with a cream cheese filling)
Makes: 12 whoopie pies
Prep time: 20 minutes Bake time: 12-13 minutes

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup shredded apple, packed
3 cups cake flour
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, molasses, and brown sugar. Cream these items together. Add in eggs and stir to combine. Add in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Stir in the grated apple (Note: I used 2 small apples and peeled them before shredding with a box grater. If you don’t have a grater, chop up the apples into very small pieces). Stir in the cake flour until just combined.
Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop dough onto a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Don’t under-bake!
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, move to cooling racks and let cool completely.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the vanilla bean paste (you can substitute vanilla extract), then slowly add in the powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until smooth.

Once the whoopies/cake-cookies/cookie-cakes are completely cooled, spoon the cream cheese filling onto the bottoms of 12, then top with the remaining 12. Serve immediately. Enjoy!