Pies are not these cookies, and these pies are not even these cookies! They are really little cakes. They are tasty and entertaining to prepare, despite their perplexing name.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 12 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 12 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 dozen whoopie pies |
Ingredients
- 10 ounces all-purpose flour
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup dark molasses
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger, or more to taste
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg, beaten
- ⅓ cup boiling water
- Filling:
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
- ¼ cup butter, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons heavy whipping cream, or as needed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Combine flour, white sugar, molasses, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Mix in vegetable oil and egg until combined. Pour in boiling water and whisk until smooth.
- Drop dough in balls onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart, using a 1-ounce cookie scoop.
- Bake in the preheated oven until puffed and golden, about 12 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring onto a rack to cool completely.
- Beat confectioners’ sugar, cream cheese, butter, cream, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer on low until combined. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.
- Spread about 2 teaspoons of filling onto the bottom of a cookie; top with another similarly sized cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Chill for 30 minutes.
- It is critical to weigh the flour for this recipe to work as seen in the video. Ten ounces by weight is about 2 cups by volume, but because flour can become quite compressed in the bag or canister, portioning by cup is not very accurate. If you are not going to weigh, only add about a cup and a half of flour, proceed as shown, and if the batter seems too thin after mixing, add more flour, little by little, until you have the thick batter seen in the video.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 423 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 63 g |
| Cholesterol | 47 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 371 mg |
| Sugars | 42 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This recipe was awesome. I used a swiss meringue expresso buttercream for filling. It was a hit!
It was great! Soft and chewy! I even ran put of molasses and had to use a corn syrup/brown sugar substitute and it still turned put well!A definate family favorite!
These were fantastic. Nice change from the regular cocoa based cookies. I made a different filling instead of this cream cheese based one but loved the cookies.
Followed exactly, my oven must run hotter, only baked for 10 mins Thank you for the great, tasty, yummy recipe!!
You should watch his video before making!!! Most people that are having issues appear to be having difficulty with their batter. If you measure the flour by weight and adjust the boiling water by the consistency of the batter (We needed a splash or 2 more than the recipe stated) it will turn out perfect. These were absolutely delicious!
First, I should note that I did have to make alterations due to family food allergies/intolerances; however the recipe still turned out very well. My subs were Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour, Simple Truth confectioner’s sugar (made with tapioca starch instead of corn starch), soy-free Earth Balance, and Daiya cream cheese. fyi, we used canola oil for the vegetable oil and simply omitted the cream. You would think with all of my subs that the recipe wouldn’t turn out the same, but i believe it did. The results were excellent. I did have to add more flour, probably partly due to the gf flour and partly due to my living in the high desert. After reaching the consistency shown in the video, I proceeded. The cookie is soft and delicious, a perfect cookie for the whoopie pie. The filling was super-sweet, hence my 1-star deduction. This was solved by cutting the pies in half 🙂 My kids and I agreed they were much better cold. I forgot to take pictures, but the pies looked exactly like those shown in the recipe. This recipe’s a keeper!
These turned out amazing!! I have been told that this recipe is a keeper!
These spread out a bit more than I anticipated. The edges were a little crunchy for me. Perhaps I baked slightly too long. However the flavor was really good and the filling was great. Much better after setting up in the fridge for a while.
This turned out the way I usually make my whoopie pies. I am a New England girl and make the chocolate ones frequently for family events. I started making changes a few years ago with pumpkin whoopie pies with cream cheese filling so making the gingerbread turned out great and will make them again for Christmas for the family gathering. I don’t use heavy cream but half and half if needed for consistency. I used 2 cups of all purpose flour and they came out perfect! Thanks for the recipe.
Well I definitely should have read the weighing the flour note before baking these BUT I ended up baking them a little longer and crumbled them up for cake balls. I used about half the filling recipe mixed with the “cake” then made them into balls, froze them for 1/2 hour, then drizzled the remaining filling over the top. They actually turned out pretty good!
Since I did not see the footnote until I was finished (It was not included in the printed copy. Next time, use an asterisk!), my batter was too runny for cookies. I poured it into an 8 X 8 pan and baked it for 25 minutes and iced it with a 1/2 batch of frosting. It is fine this way, but not what I expected.
I made these, but filled them with maple filling per my grandson’s request. That were fabulous!
These turned out great! I’m from Maine, so whoopie pies are a big treat for me! The gingerbread was a nice twist on the classic chocolate and the cream cheese filling was delectable instead of the usual vanilla icing. I agree with other users, follow this recipe EXACTLY, especially the part about adding the boiling water to the dough and how the texture should look and you’ll be just fine. People who are complaining about the texture most likely didn’t do this–they should look like very viscous gingerbread cookies on the baking sheet when you prepare them, and turn out to be well-formed, soft cookies. They will create the perfect shape just because of their texture, you shouldn’t have to shape or cut them into circles.
These are great. The gingerbread taste is light and the icing tastes yummy with it. If I make them again, I’m going to also make some whip cream and fold it into the icing as it will be fluffier
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I wasn’t able to drop the dough in “balls.” It wasn’t a consistency that could form balls. However, the dough puffed up a bit in the oven. It made soft and slightly puffed cookies, which seemed a fine form for whoopie pies. The flavor was good and a nice match for the sweet frosting. This is a good dessert for those with less of a sweet tooth. So many holiday treats are super sweet or super rich. This is a nice change of good flavor that is not over powering or heavy.
They tasted fine, but they came out flat, and the dough was liquid. Never making them again.
I followed the recipe and got rave reviews – at the party I took them to. They were all eaten quickly. However, they were just too sweet for my taste. The gingerbread part was lovely by itself.
This was such a dissapointment the cookies came out flat as board and hard as a rock and I followed the recipe just like it said. I wanted to like this but something didn’t go right.
This was such a dissapointment the cookies came out flat as board and hard as a rock and I followed the recipe just like it said. I wanted to like this but something didn’t go right.
There are many varieties of whoopie pies and I’ve learned you judge whoopie pies on what you are used to. I’m still a big fan of the chocolate whoopie pie but this was nice variation for the fall. The cake portion in wonderful, especially if eaten the following day allowing the spices to meld. The cream center was way too sweet for me and I would substitute the filling I use on my regular whoopie pies. Other than that, it was a nice treat.