I didn’t know what a whoopie was until about a year ago, and didn’t try one for the first time until last night. According to the not-always-so-reliable Wikipedia, they started in Pennsylvania so maybe it’s taken awhile for them to get to California. Who knows. But I can definitely see why they’re popular!
I baked these when we had a few friends over, and I have to say, I can see why I usually make baking a solitary activity. About six of the cookies were grabbed off the cooling rack before I had a chance to frost them, and I was distracted when I was making the frosting so I added too much milk (which I know is easily corrected with more powdered sugar, but I didn’t bother). They could definitely be prettier (if I’d grated the apple instead of diced it) but the prospect of getting out my food processor just to grate one apple seemed like a little too much). I definitely need to invest in a box grater, right now!
I started with a recipe for carrot whoopie pies and just subbed apple for carrot. I didn’t have cream cheese around for the filling included with the recipe, so I made a half recipe of the cinnamon frosting from my Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. I think these are supposed to have more frosting between them, but I thought the cookie to frosting ratio was perfect.
Recipe:
(adapted from Epicurious via Abigail Goes Design Scouting)
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup diced or grated apple (peel the apple first)
Stir the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy.
Beat in the egg and vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture.
Mix in the grated apple, then put plastic wrap over the dough and chill for about an hour.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 F. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for about 12-15 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheets for about 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Once the cookies are cool, mix up the frosting:
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp milk
Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Add 2 tbsp milk, then add the rest of the milk 1 tsp at a time, stopping when the frosting has a nice spreadable consistency.
Match the cookies in pairs by size, then spread frosting between them.
These sound delicious Cate!
Those look really great– crisp but creamy!! I will have to try these!
Wow, seriously genius idea Cate! These look amazing!
Anytime I think of whoopie pies, I will imagine a radio Brian snagging cookies off the cooling rack and shoving them in his mouth…Can we just call them Brian Pies from now on? (Did you like my use of rhyming slang?…lets see if any of your readers know what Radio means.)
These look incredible! I’m normally not much of a whoopie pie fan, but these – now these are something I would enjoy! That cinnamon frosting sounds much better to me than typical marshmallow, esp. with the apple flavor – yum!
I’ve never seen whoopie pies with these flavors. Looks delicious!
Mmmm! What an interesting flavor combo. Looks great!
I love apples, I eat one every day, sometimes two:) I can’t wait to enjoy the apples in this treat!
Yum – I love the flavors in these – great idea!
LOL, I’d be grabbing the cookies too! Looks like a perfect whoopie flavor combo!
Your recipe looks super yummy! Whoopie pies are also big in Maine (where I used to live) and if you ask a Mainer, they’ll say they originated there.
These could be super dangerous for me. They look awesome!
So many whoopie pies look kind of “eh” to me but these look SO good. I love anything with apples and these look delicious.
[...] Cinnamon-Apple Cookies Inspired by Cate’s World Kitchen [...]
Just stumbled upon this post so much later as it’s now apple season. I like the idea of these and may tinker because I love the idea of these but they look a little bit flatter, less fluffy, and more cookie like than what I usually aim for with whoopie pies. We shall see!
I just made these using your recipe and they were absolutely delicious!! It didnt make very many but I will definitely be making them again and doubling the recipe!
[...] I go about making these with a humongous apple? When in doubt, ask Google. Using the cookies from this recipe and a modified version of the cream from this recipe, my problem was [...]