These whoopie pies are so good I could not wait to share them with you!
What we have here are soft, pillowy pumpkin cakes with a delicious and creamy chai coconut filling. The filling is so rich and creamy it almost tastes like ice cream!
WHAT ARE WHOOPIE PIES?
If you are not familiar with whoopie pies, it's basically two tender cakes with a cream filling sandwiched between them. Traditionally, it's prepared with chocolate cakes and a vanilla cream filling.
Here, we will go with pumpkin cakes and a rich and creamy chai-spiced filling for a special holiday version!
HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE PIES
Cream Filling
Before diving into the cake batter, let's start with the chai filling, which needs to be prepared ahead of time. The base is soaked cashews blended with coconut cream, maple syrup to add sweetness, coconut oil to help it firm up, spices, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a mandatory pinch of salt. For the spices, I went with a simple blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. For an even more authentic chai flavor you can also add some cloves.
Once your cream is silky smooth, you transfer it to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator until firm and spreadable. You can speed up the process by placing it in the freezer for about 2 hours.
Cookies
Next comes the sandwich cookies. It's gluten-free, naturally sweetened with coconut sugar, and flavored with pumpkin purée. I used one FULL cup of pumpkin! We can almost say we get our daily dose of vegetables with a couple of whoopie pies. Almost.
The recipe calls for cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to add flavor, feel free to substitute those spices for a pumpkin pie spice mix.
The cakes won't spread much so you have to slightly spread them into a disk using the back of a spoon. Bake for about 13 minutes in the oven and it's ready! The addition of pumpkin puree gives them a beautiful orange color and makes them soft and fluffy.
Finally, spread a generous amount of chai coconut cream onto half of the cakes and top with the rest. This recipe makes about 14 whoopie pies, which is not much actually considering how fast they disappear.
If you are a chai tea addict, you will love these pumpkin whoopie pies. The coconut cashew cream almost melts in your mouth while still keeping its shape at room temperature, and the cakes have a super tender texture.
These whoopie pies are the perfect holiday treat to have while watching a Christmas movie, or basically at any time of the day. They would make a nice Thanksgiving dessert too!
Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
Chai Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (Vegan + GF)
Ingredients
Whoopie Cakes
- 1 cup oat flour
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ½ cup tapioca starch
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 14 tablespoon almond milk
- 1 cup pumpkin purée
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Chai Cream Filling
- ¾ cup raw cashews soaked at least 6 hours
- ½ cup coconut cream from one 13.5-oz can
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil melted
- ¼ teaspoon each: cinnamon, cardamom, ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Chai Cream Filling
- Drain and rinse the soaked cashews. Place them in a blender with the coconut cream, maple syrup, coconut oil, spices, and salt. Blend on high speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Taste and adjust the sweetness to your liking. The cream will be very thin, it's okay, it will firm up in the refrigerator.
- Transfer to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or in the freezer for about 2 hours.
Whoopie Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Whisk together oat flour, rice flour, tapioca starch, coconut sugar, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt in a large mixing bowl until combined.
- Pour in the almond milk, pumpkin purée, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. Then, stir in the apple cider vinegar and whisk again. The batter should have the texture of pancake batter.
- Scoop out about 1 and ½ tablespoon of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1-inch between the cakes and spread slightly with a spoon (see photo). I had enough batter to fill 3 baking sheets.
- Bake for about 13 minutes, or until the tops appear dry and slightly cracked. The cakes should spring back when pressed. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, about 20 minutes.
- Once the cakes are cooled, turn half of them upside-down and pipe or spread about 1 and ½ tablespoon of the chai filling onto them. Top with the rest of the cakes and press down slightly.
- Whoopie pies are best served the same day but will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. You can eat them straight from the refrigerator, or leave at room temperature for 15 minutes if you prefer a creamier filling.
Notes
- Cashew cream filling adapted from Minimalist Baker's Cashew Buttercream Frosting.
OMG, I so love YOU! 🙂
So fun and festive! Love it!
Thanks Melissa! 😉
Hey Thomas, this looks awesome! Question for you... can you sub out the tapioca starch for another starch (corn, arrowroot)? Thanks!!!
Hey Beth, yes that should work!
These will be in my ‘gotta make’ list. What a lovely combination. Chai being my everyday drink of choice. Thanks for sharing recipe Thomas
You're welcome Linda! 😉
Do you think the recipe would work with "normal" flour?
I guess it could work but I have never tried honestly, I try to keep all the recipes gluten-free.
Was excited to try these, but the chai seeds were omitted from the ingredient list. Can you please email me with the amount. Are they soaked with the cashews? Please help me out as I am ever so anxious to try them!
What do you mean by chai seeds? There is no need for chia seeds in this recipe.
I was totally excited by this recipe. I made the filling and it turned out fantastic. Got all my ingredients ready to make the cookies and it was a bust. There was too much dry ingredients and not enough wet to bring it together. I did not used canned pumpkin, I used fresh and pureed it in my vita mix. I also did not get that deep orange colour - probably because I did not use canned pumpkin. Could that have been my downfall. I also used a gf mix for the oat flour and coconut for the rice. Any comments would be appreciated. Janine
Janine, if you substitute most of the ingredients the result can't be the same I'm afraid. GF mix won't' absorb the same amount of liquid as oat flour, same for coconut and rice flour, that's why the consistency of your batter was off. Regarding the color, yes it depends on the pumpkin puree you use, some are more yellow than orange.
Janine, I also used GF mix (I use Bob's Red Mill), but in place of all three starches- oat, rice, and tapioca. A couple extra splashes of almond milk and a hearty spoonful of pumpkin corrected the consistency and my cookies turned out great! Best of luck to you.
Do you think I could get away with just oat flour?
I'm afraid it won't work, tapioca helps bind everything together.
Do you think I could replace the rice flour with something (not sure what) or leave it out completely and adjust the amounts of everything else? Really can't have rice flour.
I was wondering the same thing. What can be substituted for the rice flour?
This looks so good! Do you use this flour blend for any other desserts?
Thanks! Not from what I remember, I usually change the blend depending on the recipes.
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
About 3 days in the refrigerator but are best eaten the same day!
What could I replace the cashews with?
That is a tough one, you could use whipped coconut cream or a normal buttercream frosting.
These look amazing and would love to try them! I’m a newbie to the whole cashew cream thing so this may seem like an obvious question but, what do you soak the cashews in?? Thank you!
I soak the cashews in water 🙂
These are so cute! I think I'll make these when my sister comes to visit me in October 🙂
Thanks Lea!
Could I use tapioca flour instead of tapioca starch? I cannot seem to find tapioca starch anywhere.
I am not sure what is tapioca flour, isn't it the same as tapioca starch?
Oh my goodness, your patience for these comments is absolutely incredible. Thank you for the delicious recipe, I can't wait to make them exactly as the recipe says 😉
Hope you will like it 🙂
Hi! So excited to try this recipe! Do you recommend white rice or brown rice flour for this recipe? I'm assuming white rice but wanted to double check. 🙂
Hi Patricia,
Yes, it's white rice flour.