I have a ridiculously large binder with printed recipes that I find all over the internet. It is filled to the max with fantastic looking recipes that I really, really want to try. I recently purchased binder #2 as a destination for the worthiest of tasty recipes. I was quite excited about my new binder, but since then I haven’t had any hands-down “Binder #2″ winners and I was a little sad about that. Last night, however, I fell in love with the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie.

Holy smokes are these things delicious! Just the other day I was on Culinerapy and read Sara’s adorable post and saw them. Pumpkin spiced pillows of moist cakey cookies sandwiched together with a generous dollop of cream cheese frosting. All I needed was an excuse to make these sinful treats and then our friends conveniently had a baby boy. Tonight we are bringing dinner and Pumpkin Whoopie Pies over and looking forward to holding baby Devin and hearing all about their first blissful, sleep-deprived week as new parents. I did send one special pie to my buddy Tim at work this morning and he sent me this message, “OMG Nicole! This Pumpkin Burger is awesome!” So take it from Tim and try these  Pumpkin Burgers while I slip this recipe into binder #2.

Baby Devin can't wait to try a whoopie pie one day.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Adapted from Culinerapy via Matt Lewis of Baked Bakery

Makes 10 pies with a standard ice cream scoop.

For the whoopie cookies:

3 C. all-purpose flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

2 T. ground cinnamon

1 T. ground ginger

1 T. ground cloves

1 1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar

1 C. vegetable oil

3 C. pumpkin puree, chilled

2 large eggs

1 t. pure vanilla extract

For the cream cheese filling:

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar

1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Combine flour mixture with pumpkin mixture and whisk until incorporated.

3. Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15-17 minutes. Let cool completely on pan. (I transfer to wire rack and this worked well).

4. Sift powdered sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or with an electric beater) beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)

5. When cookies have completely cooled, place a generous dollop of filling in the middle of the flat side of one of the cookies. Sandwich with another cookie, press down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to a baking sheet with parchment or another container and refrigerate pies at least 30 minutes before serving up to 3 days.

*I have posted a link to Sara’s adapted recipe above. I posted the recipe I followed. I cut back on the sugar in the cookies and way back on the sugar in the frosting. Sara also used a ziploc baggie to pipe filling into cookies and I used an offset spatula to add the filling and I thought it worked well.