- Hey, I'm John Kanell and
today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some easy and
delicious pumpkin whoopie pies. So let's get started. First off, set that oven to 350. And then we're gonna be adding three cups or 360 grams of all-purpose
flour into a large bowl. And I have a sifter over this because I'm using some
spices that can clump up. 360 grams. To puff our whoopie pies up, we need one teaspoon of baking soda and one teaspoon of baking powder. We're also gonna add
some salt for contrast. And I wanna warn you, I'm
using a kosher sea salt, which is very mild and
has like a large grain. If you're using a table salt, I would use half of that,
especially if it's iodized. It's very, very sharp, salty flavor. So that's one teaspoon of that or 1/2 a teaspoon if you're
using one of those finer salts. Now we need to grab some spices. This delicious pumpkin whoopie pie is full of your favorite fall flavors. So we need the cinnamon, the cloves, and, of course, the ginger. I'm using 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. If you wanted to go up to
two teaspoons, you could. If you wanna have allspice,
little cardamom, some nutmeg, sprinkle those in. I would go for 1/4 teaspoon of each. Two teaspoons of ground ginger. This gives you a nice bite and really like wakes the flavor up. And in case you were wondering, ginger is the clumpy spice. 1/4 teaspoon of cloves, not heaping. Really just 1/4 teaspoon. We're gonna sift this up. Sifting is gonna help it mix up. It's gonna aerate the flour a bit. But mostly you're catching
these giant lumps. Like if you look in here, so many lumps! Our scale is done and we're gonna whisk... We're gonna whisk those
dry ingredients together, get them nice and combined. Set that aside. And now in a separate bowl, we'll get all the wet
ingredients together. This cake is so easy, but it's moist, full of flavor, and just
(smooches) delicious. I actually have to say
hello to my scale again, 'cause I'm measuring the
brown sugar out by grams. Two cups. And yes, I keep marshmallows
in my brown sugar canister so it stays nice and soft. A little tip for you. Just sick of packing my brown
sugar in a measuring cup. And it's full of clumps
'cause you made clumps. So if you use a scale, you
don't have to worry about that. The brown sugar adds a ton
of moisture and flavor, but it also has acid which
reacts with the baking soda. Ah! One 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree. This is the magic stuff. And I have to tell you,
towards the end of summer, I was waiting for fall
and pumpkin everything. I was even making pumpkin pancakes throughout the winter, into the spring. So delicious. Two large eggs, no shells. I also need 2/3 of a cup of vegetable oil. That's 160 mLs. There we go. I'm gonna break up all the brown sugar and give this a nice whisk. And don't think that I
forgot the one tablespoon or 15 mLs of vanilla. This with the spices in
the pumpkin is pure heaven. Even better when you made
the vanilla yourself. That recipe's on the channel. Whisk this up until it's nice and smooth. Because I didn't pack the brown sugar, no lumps of brown sugar. What a nice change! This is nice and smooth. Beautiful, one might say. Time to pour the wet into the dry. And by the way, the smell of this is wild. It's so delicious.
(bright music) And also don't be tempted to lick this. No, no, no. Now we're gonna stir this
together really gently. The secret to a beautiful, moist
melt-in-your-mouth whoopie pie is not over mixing the batter. So just stir it together with your spatula until
the streaks just disappear. So there's a bit of a debate going on and I want your opinion. When it comes to fall treats, are you pumpkin or apple? I feel like we shouldn't have to choose, but if I did, I might be team pumpkin. Just because I can enjoy
apple all year round, but I feel pumpkin's a bit more seasonal. You let me know in the comments. Okay, I'm almost there. I'm just finding a couple hidden pockets of flour towards the bottom. But really I'm so happy that I'm using a spatula and not just beating this
with an electric mixer, because when we over mix our flour, we're activating the proteins in there, specifically gluten, and it gives us a gummier,
stretchier texture that's not melt in your mouth. (bell dings) That's not melt in your mouth amazing. This looks great. Look how soft and
beautiful this batter is. It's just holding together, which means it'll bake up and be perfect. Grab a small ice cream scoop. You want about two tablespoons
of batter per scoop. And we are just gonna transfer these over onto a lined baking sheet. It could be parchment or silicone. And in a pinch you could use two spoons and just spoon the batter out. They just won't be as
nicely, uniformly round. Give at least an inch of space in between. I like to give like 1 1/2 to 2, because they will puff up and spread. There's actually a little bit
of debate on whoopie pies. So most people say that they're
from the Pennsylvania Amish. And by the way, if I should
make Amish bread for the channel or Amish friendship bread, you let me know. It was one of my high school treats, 'cause we would all
pass around the starter. I was a baking nerd though,
so I don't know about you. However, there was extra cake batter with a little bit extra cake frosting, and supposedly the Amish
housewives would use that to make these delicious
little whoopie pies. They're called whoopie pies because the men would see
them in their lunchbox and say, whoopie! The other story is that they
come from this restaurant in Maine from the 20s. Unfortunately or conveniently, all their records burnt along with the restaurant at some point. So there's no proof. But those are the two stories. And whoopie pies, I will say,
are very common in Maine. I feel like they should be common all over because they're delicious. It's like a delicious cake
sandwich that you can eat and that they're not
more popular is a shame. We're gonna bake these up
for 12 to 15 minutes at 350, but if you want your whoopie pies to look really smooth
and perfect, that's fine. I got you. Just get your wet fingertips, wet and clean, and tamp the edges down so that there's like no like
little ridges hanging around. I don't mind seeing the ridges, but if you want them
to be nice and smooth, you're just gonna to
use your wet fingertips like you're making in eclair
almost to smooth things out. Bake your whoopie pies one tray at a time, 12 to 15 minutes. They're done when a skewer
comes out clean from the middle. Do not over bake them. That'll make them dry. While our cakes are baking, we're gonna make a delicious
cream cheese frosting. So into the bowl of your mixer, I want 1/2 a cup of
room-temperature butter, 113 grams, and four ounces or 113 grams
of softened cream cheese. This went into the microwave for like 30 seconds at half power just to soften it up. We're gonna cream this together
so it's nice and smooth. I'm also adding in 1/2
a teaspoon of vanilla. In you go.
(mixer whirring) All right. Once that's all mixed up, you're gonna scrape the bowl down. If you make this with
a stand mixer, scrape. If you're making it with a hand mixer, you can kind of just like rake the bottom of the bowl and it's not a big deal. Alrighty, now it's time for
three cups of powdered sugar. This is gonna be the perfect
complement to the cake. It's so good together. If you wanted, you could
add a few spices in here, but I love the contrast of like a clean vanilla
cream cheese frosting with all the pumpkin
and spices in the cake. For like an extra delicious fall note, if you wanted more depth of flavor, you could brown the butter. So use that same amount of butter, but just brown it so it's
nice and caramel in color, and you'll have like a
beautiful nutty depth of flavor. Browned butter is something that I keep around the house when it's fall because it's good in
savory, in sweet dishes. And, yes, I even talk
about it in my cookbook. It is delicious. Get your copy today. (upbeat music) Okay. Once that sugar's incorporated,
scrape the bowl down. And now we're gonna mix on medium speed until it's light and fluffy. 30 seconds to 90. (upbeat music)
(mixer whirring) Just a little mixing later, and I want you to see the texture. This is heavenly. It's like a cloud of whipped
cream cheese and sugar, and it's delicious. Pop this into a piping bag
and we're ready to assemble. You could just spoon this in, but it's not gonna look very neat. I love using a piping bag here. And for all the Virgo feelings, use a 1A piping tip, a large round. (bell dings) (upbeat music) This is a casual easy dessert, but they look so cute with just a little bit
more attention to detail. Speaking of attention to detail, even though I said the
right amounts in the video, I actually put in the
wrong amount of sugar. And I wanna show you because this is something that happens when people try and
reduce sugar in a recipe. It can work, but it's different. So here is my beautiful little cake top. It's like perfectly domed. It's spread out nicely and
it's like softer than a cloud. If you added in half the
sugar, which I did by accident. I had to remake this. It comes out like this. It's basically like a little
scoop of pumpkin bread. It's delicious still, but it's really more
on like the bread side, like slightly sweet. And the main difference is a little bit less soft. Pumpkin is magic, so
it's still pretty soft. But you can see the spread. It didn't spread out into
that nice whoopie pie shape. So you're gonna taste the
difference and see the difference. And, oftentimes, you'll
feel the difference. Sugar doesn't just make things sweet, it softens the texture as well. So if you halve the sugar in this recipe, you'll have pumpkin bread bites. I just made that up. The kids and I had them
for afternoon snack and they were delicious. All right, now get that piping bag out, and we're gonna pipe just a nice beautiful layer of frosting. You can leave some space around the edge because when you press them together, the filling will spread out. If you wanted to make these in advance, these guys will keep in the fridge, just bring them back to room temperature. But I would assemble them before serving, because the frosting will
really soften the cake up and they might get a bit mushy over time. Look at this. This is a wonder. It's so soft and beautiful. All I can say is whoopie! (upbeat music) Mm! Oh my gosh, pumpkin spice everything! So good. This melts in your mouth. It is like a pumpkin
cloud come down to earth. You've got to try this recipe. And if you like this video,
check out my pumpkin playlist.
