Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Who doesn't love a good whoopie? I mean really even if you haven't ever enjoyed the indulgent-y goodness of a whoopie pie the word alone fills one with unencumbered joy. I think I may have mentioned in the last year of blogging my absolute idolatry of pumpkin anything. Pumpkin pancakes, smoothies, pies, cakes, pasta and even a pumpkin black bean enchilada have graced my taste buds and tummy since my transformation from vegetarian caterpillar to a beautiful vegan butterfly. Thus it seemed only reasonable that when the newest King Arthur Flour catalog arrived at my door with a recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies I needed to veganize it...and quick. Since that fate-filled day I have made these whoopie pies 6 or 7 times and each time I am discovering how to improve the recipe so they work with vegan ingredients. The first take was a mess, instead of whoopie pies I ended up with whoopie discs, quite crispy and thin. Yikes! A change here, a change there and finally I have something I can be proud of.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

1/2 cup Earth Balance, room temperature
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 T. molasses
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. ground flax
2 T. water
1 can pumpkin
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Using a stand-up mixer cream Earth Balance, canola oil, and brown sugar until most of sugar is dissolved making a brown goo of sorts. Add molasses, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. In a small bowl whisk flax and water with a fork until a bit frothy, then add to batter. Mix for about 1 minute to get everything well combined the add pumpkin and mix for another 30 seconds. Finally add it flour 1/2 cup at a time and mix well until you get a light, fluffy whipped batter.

I discovered the best thing to use when baking these is a silpat or parchment paper, a greased pan will cause the whoopies to spread...eek!


Using a pastry bag and tip #5PT pipe small circles (for mini bite sized whoopies) or larger 2 inch diameter circles (for normal sized whoopies)

Pipe about two inches apart from one another. Place in oven and bake for 13 minutes (for minis) to 16 minutes (for regular). Remove from oven and let cool. Once cool pipe frosting on one whoopie and top with another creating a delicious pie!

Filling:
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup vegan cream cheese or shortening (either make for a great flavor)
2-3 cups powdered sugar (I never measure this, you just want to make sure the end result isn't too soft or runny, so increase powdered sugar until a nice thick but soft frosting emerges)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. ground ginger

In stand up mixer cream together the Earth Balance and cream cheese. Add in powdered sugar until desired consistency then add vanilla extract and ground ginger. When frosting is complete put into a piping bag and using a star tip pipe into a circle on one whoopie and then top with another whoopie then shove into your face and great elation. Yep, it is that good!

Chickpea burgers

There is this super sweet and funny woman Marcy that shops at my Trader Joe's and over the last four years of working there Marcy and I have become friends. We email, share our pet stories and even poke fun at out crazy up tight neighbors. Marcy is so fun to speak with that often I find myself not working while at work but just chit chatting. Recently Marcy has gotten into the habit of bringing old magazines to my store for the employees to read on our lunch breaks. The magazines vary from Ode, O Magazine and Healthy Living to some I have never seen or hear before like Mother Earth News and Experience Life. Some of these magazines are absolutely uplifting and are great to read on a lunch break giving a fresh perspective to the rest of the work day. For me, one of the perks of these magazines is the recipes, though not all Vegan a lot are very easy to alter and make Vegan friendly. Experience Life just had a recipe for Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers and I made them last night for dinner, they were FANTASTIC! The best part, Timmy and I figured you could really replace the garbanzo beans with any bean and make all kinds of delicious and healthy veggie burgers. I followed the recipe as is, but next time I am going to use black beans with corn, jalapenos and tomatoes for a spicy South Western burger. Yum!

Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers


served along side with lightly friend and seasoned cauliflower

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. fresh ginger
3 T. olive oil
2 T. lemon juice
2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
3 T. diced red bell peppers
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine garbanzo beans through lemon juice in a food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add rice, bell peppers and parsley. Mix with your hands then shape into burgers. Place on baking sheet and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.


Enjoy!