The inspiration for these little seasonal treats came from a post on an awesome blog, Tastes of Lizzy T’s. One night I realized I was supposed to bring some cookies to an event early the next day. It was late and all I had in the house that seemed interesting was a can of pumpkin and white chocolate chips. I Googled the ingredients and was led to the above blog post. What a stroke of good luck! The cookies were delicious, but I couldn’t help but think how great they would be as whoopie pies – especially studded with dried cranberries and filled with cream cheese icing.  I omitted the white chocolate chips and tried my idea out. Roy and Allison both agreed the resulting whoopie pies were yummy! Let me know how your family likes them – I’d love to hear all about it.

Ingredients for about 1 1/2 dozen Pumpkin Cranberry Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Frosting Filling

For the cookie tops and bottoms:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the Cream Cheese Frosting Filling

1/4 cup butter

1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, Beat the butter and sugars together until fluffy. Mix in the pumpkin puree. Add the spices. Then add the flour, baking soda, and salt and combine well.

Stir in the dried cranberries so they are distributed evenly throughout the dough.

Line a baking sheep with parchment paper or foil. (I used the inside of a half pint mason jar lid as a guide to draw circles on the parchment paper.)  Using a small ice cream scoop or a spoon, drop balls of dough on the on the baking sheet. Then, with the back of a spoon or a knife, flatten and spread the dough out to make circles. (I used the circles I had drawn as a guide.) Bake about 14 minutes or until cookies have firmed up and are starting to brown. Ovens vary, so keep an eye on them. After removing them from the oven, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow them to completely cool.

While they are cooling, make the cream cheese frosting filling.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla extract until fluffy.

To assemble each whoopie pie, spread about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese frosting on the flat side of cookie. Place another cookie, flat side down on the filling, on top.