recipe: pumpkin whoopie pies

I had a can of pumpkin purée burning a hole in my pocket for days - actually since last year.  It's been sitting, patiently waiting for its time to shine ever since I bought extra cans of pumpkin in my effort to make my first ever pumpkin pie.  Turns out, first time was a charm on the pumpkin pie and I didn't need the extra can o' pumpkin puree.  And so it sat.  Waiting. Wishing that I would find some recipe to try so that the pumpkin puree can shine in all its autumnal glory (sometimes I get a little dramatic with my fall words as it is my favorite season.)   

So after pinning about 75 different pumpkin recipes on Pinterest, I finally settled on pumpkin whoopie pies. I spooned the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet about the size I typically make chocolate chip cookies ~ this here was problem numero uno. ~ Next time I make these I will be sure to scrap that idea, fight my urges of the typical cookie ball and make dough balls that are about a teaspoon in size. Otherwise the entire Duggar family will be able to feast on one whoopie pie. Not only do the cookies puff up, but the cream cheese frosting for the middle is so incredibly good / rich that I could really only handle 2 bites.

The good news is that my mom freezes pumpkin bars all the time; she is the queen of freezing everything. Seriously. I do not kid on topics such as freezer foods.  It's serious business. 

Cheese? In the freezer.

Crackers? In the freezer.

Pumpkin bars? In the freezer. And they are so incredibly delicious even once they spent some time in the freezer, frosting and all.

So I knew that even though these seemed to be way too many cookies for Mike and I to enjoy on our own over the course of a few days, that my efforts would not go to waste.  I frosted some into sandwich cookies but then froze the rest as individual cookies.  In the future, I think I'll make the frosting and keep in a container in the frig and then we'll take out just what we want to eat for dessert that night, let the cookies thaw and then frost them with the oh-so-delicious maple cream cheese frosting.  They defrost quickly ~ typically if we have a light dinner, I'll snag a few cookies out of the freezer as I'm cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and voila they have thawed by the time we want a little snack.  Had we not froze them, we might gain 30 lbs in 2 days just by having them available to us.  This dessert is like the gift the keeps on giving for us ~ I am pretty sure that we'll be enjoying this treat all fall long. 

The freezer is a good thing, my friends, a very good thing.  

Click here to get the recipe for the Brown Eyed Baker's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.