A whoopie pie for fall

A whoopie pie for every season. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
   I’ve got one for fall: Whoopie Pumpkin Pies (click for the recipe), created by Pat and Gina Neely, hosts of the Food Network TV show Down Home with the Neelys.
   Canned pure pumpkin lends the slight pumpkin flavor to the creamy middle, sandwiched on either side by a billowy chocolate cookie.
   These cookies would be a fabulous treat for a Halloween party – both young and old will like them.
   Comments on the Food Network website seem to point to an error about the amount of sugar needed in the cookies when the recipe was originally posted, but it has since been corrected. The recipe is exactly the same as the one I used from the October 2011 issue of Food Network magazine.
   The whoopie pies are easy to make.
   Butter, sugar, egg, buttermilk and vanilla are beaten together, then a mixture of dry ingredients is added. The dry ingredients are flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Everything is mixed until just combined (I used an electric hand mixer rather than a stand mixer.)
   The dough is dropped by heaping tablespoons on parchment-lined baking sheets, and baked in the oven for eight minutes. The cookies are transferred to racks and left to cool completely.
   The filling is made by beating together cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar (icing sugar), canned pure pumpkin (don’t use pumpkin pie filling), cinnamon and salt until smooth.
   To assemble a pie, the filling is spread on the flat side of a cookie and sandwiched with another.