I'm sharing Dorie Greenspan's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Dulce de Leche filling for OXO's Bake a Difference campaign in support of Cookies for Kid's Cancer. Two soft, light pumpkin cookies studded with fresh cranberries are sandwiched with creamy dulce de leche marshmallow filling.
I was contacted by OXO to participate in their Bake a Difference Campaign in support of the charity Cookies for Kids Cancer, in exchange for receiving some OXO products. I jumped at the chance to help out a good cause.
I made a recipe by Dorie Greenspan, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Dulce de Leche Filling. The cookies are soft and have an incredibly light texture. They are sandwiched together with a creamy dulce de leche filling.
OXO's Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer (discontinued) works well for mixing the dough. With a light to guide you, OXO On Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer includes intuitive digital controls to steadily increase or decrease speed. When you're finished, the on-board beater clip, wrap-and-secure cord, and flat, stable base allow for compact, upright storage.
When it comes time to mix in the cranberries, switch to OXO's Medium Silicone Spatula. The mixer would break up the cranberries, turning your cookies red with cranberry juice. That would also alter the ratio of cookie ingredients, and they wouldn't bake properly.
My favorite part about these cookies is that they're baked in OXO's Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan, a ceramic-reinforced, two-layer, commercial-grade coating that provides ultimate non-stick release and is scratch-, stain-, corrosion- and abrasion-resistant. It's unique micro-textured pattern ensures even baking. Baking in a muffin pan ensures that all of the cookies are the same width, so there's no guesswork in trying to match up free-form cookies of roughly the same size.
Using OXO's Medium Cookie Scoop makes quick work of portioning the dough into the muffin pan. Designed for easy scooping and consistent shaping, the scoop's soft grip absorbs pressure while you squeeze to smoothly release your cookie dough. I use my cookie scoop for just about every recipe that requires consistent portioning, like cookies, muffins, and cream puffs.
Dorie says, "I liked these big pumpkin-spice cookies when I first made them and thought of them as cookies. But when I sandwiched them with a marshmallow crème and dulce de leche filling, officially turning them into whoopie pies, “like” became too mild a word for how I felt about them. They passed over into love ’em territory, and they’ve stayed there ever since.
The cookies themselves have the soft, light texture and flavor of spice cake. In fact, they’d be exactly like spice cake if they didn’t have the surprise of fresh cranberries, which, in addition to adding color and pop, have just the right the amount of pucker to make the sweet a grown-up dessert.
As for the filling, sticky, sweet fluff is a must. It’s just about part of the definition of whoopie pies. For these, it’s paired with store-bought or homemade dulce de leche. It’s the perfect combo, but when you’re ready for a swap, sandwich the cookies with a spiced cream cheese filling."
These cookies are seriously addictive. I love the combination of pumpkin, cranberry and dulce de leche flavors. They are the perfect size, not too big and not too small. They are great for sharing, because they are best eaten the day they are made. The cookies themselves can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight bag at room temperature.
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Dorie's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Dulce de Leche Filling
Ingredients
For the whoopie pies
- 13 cups ⁄4 all-purpose flour, 238 grams
- 3 teaspoon ⁄4 ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ⁄2 ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ⁄2 baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ⁄2 baking soda
- 1 tablespoons stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature, 8 ; 4 ounces; 113 grams
- 3 cup ⁄4 sugar, 150 grams
- 1 teaspoon ⁄2 fine sea salt
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 11 teaspoons ⁄2 pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup ⁄2 pumpkin puree, 113 grams, not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 cup ⁄2 buttermilk, preferably at room temperature, 120 ml
- 3 cup ⁄4 fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped (if frozen, don’t thaw), about 75 grams
For the filling
- 1 tablespoons stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature, 8 ; 4 ounces; 113 grams
- 1 cup marshmallow crème, 96 grams, or Marshmallow Fluff
- 1 cup ⁄4 confectioners’ sugar, 30 grams
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 1 cup ⁄4 dulce de leche, homemade or store-bought, 75 grams
Instructions
- Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray two standard muffin tins (do this even if the tins are nonstick).
- To make the cookies: Whisk the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, baking powder and baking soda together.
- Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and salt together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the pumpkin puree and beat until it’s fully incorporated; don’t be discouraged when the mixture curdles — it will soon smooth out.
- Turn off the mixer, scrape down the bowl and add half of the dry ingredients. Pulse to begin the mixing and then mix on low, scraping the bowl as needed, until the flour mixture is blended in. Beat in the buttermilk. Turn off the mixer, add the remaining dry ingredients, pulse and then mix on low until you have a lovely smooth batter. Switch to a flexible spatula and fold in the cranberries. Don’t be too thorough — it’s better to have an uneven mix than to break the berries and turn the batter red.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out level portions of dough, or use a tablespoon to get rounded spoonfuls, and fill the muffin tins. The scoops of dough will sit upright in the center of the tins, but when baked they’ll melt evenly into the cups.
- Bake the whoopie pies for 11 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back after 6 minutes, or until they are puffed, golden brown and springy to the touch.
- Transfer the pan to a rack and let the cookies rest for 5 minutes, then turn them out on the racks and allow them to cool completely.
- To make the filling: Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, marshmallow crème, sugar and salt together on medium-high speed, scraping the bowl and beater(s) as needed, for about 3 minutes, until very smooth. Lower the mixer speed, add the dulce de leche and beat until thoroughly blended.
- Using a spoon or a small cookie scoop, place the filling on the flat sides of half of the cookies; sandwich with the other cookies, flat sides down. The cookies can be eaten now, but the filling benefits from a 30-minute stay in the refrigerator. Just don’t eat them from the fridge — you’ll deprive yourself of the cookies’ wonderful texture.
Recipe by Dorie Greenspan from the cookbook Dorie's Cookies