Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies

I’m always so excited when gingerbread season rolls around! The warm spices of gingerbread always put me in a festive mood. This year, I came up with this gingerbread whoopie pie recipe after trying something similar at Epcot last year.

Two soft and chewy ginger cookies are sandwiched together with luscious cream cheese frosting. They are perfect to include on a Christmas dessert board along with traditional gingerbread man cookies and ginger molasses cookies!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Soft and chewy: These festive cookies are soft gingerbread sandwich cookies with so much delicious flavor.
• Double the cookie: Two cookies with frosting in between them, need I say more?
• Sweet creamy filling: A cream cheese filling is the perfect compliment to these Christmas whoopie pies.
• Holiday perfection: The perfect holiday dessert for sharing with friends or plating on a cookie platter!

Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.

• Molasses: This gives gingerbread a warm sweet flavor which goes so well with the spices. It’s thick and sticky so I like to spray the inside of my measuring cup with a little bit of oil before measuring the molasses to make it easier to pour out into my mixing bowl.
• Light brown sugar: This sugar is made when white granulated sugar and a little bit of molasses are combined. It has a light caramel flavor.
• Spices: I use ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves to get that classic gingerbread flavor.
• Cream cheese: Look for brick-style full-fat cream cheese to make your frosting. It will hold up better and give your frosting a firmer texture than if you use non-fat or spreadable cream cheese in tubs.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter for my frosting, but you can use salted if it’s what you have. Make sure that your butter is soft before you start combining it with the cream cheese. If it’s too cold, you’ll have lumps in your frosting. If you forget to leave the butter out of the fridge, you can check out my guide on how to soften butter for some tips!

Frosting Variation

Simple cream cheese frosting goes perfectly with these spicy gingerbread cookies, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop there! You might like to try some of these other frosting ideas to mix things up:

• Cinnamon cream cheese frosting
• Sour cream frosting
• Classic buttercream
• Eggnog buttercream
• Cinnamon roll frosting from my homemade cinnamon rolls

How to Make Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

It only takes a few minutes to make this cookie dough which is great during the busy holiday season! It does need to be refrigerated for 10 – 15 minutes before baking so you can start making the cream cheese filling while you wait and pop it into the fridge until you’re ready to sandwich the cookies together.

1. Cream. Combine the butter and sugar until fluffy, then add the egg and beat until everything is smooth. Next, add the molasses and mix everything until combined.
2. Add dry ingredients. Sift together the dry ingredients. If you don’t have a sifter, whisk everything in a large bowl and then add it to the butter mixture. Mix the dough with a spoon. Be careful not to overmix it! Refrigerate the dough for 10 – 15 minutes.
3. Scoop. Use a medium cookie scoop (about 1.5 tablespoons) to scoop the dough and form it into balls. Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and lightly press the tops to flatten them.
4. Bake. The cookies will take 8 – 10 minutes to bake. When they come out of the oven, tap the baking sheet on the counter to create a good crackle effect. Cool the cookies completely before frosting them.
5. Make the frosting. In a medium bowl mix together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix for an additional minute. If it looks a bit runny, you can add a little bit more confectioners’ sugar.
6. Sandwich. Once the gingerbread whoopie pies have cooled, frost the bottom of one cookie with cream cheese frosting, then stack a second cookie on top of the frosting. You’ve just made the perfect gingerbread sandwich cookie!

Make Ahead

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could have freshly baked gingerbread whoopie pies at the ready whenever you wanted? Well, thanks to your freezer, you can!

Scoop the dough into balls, then quickly freeze (sometimes called flash freeze) on a baking sheet until hard (about 30 minutes). Then add the dough balls to a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. 

To bake: Let the frozen dough balls sit on the baking sheet as the oven preheats. Then bake as directed, adding 1-2 minutes to the original baking time if needed.

Expert Tips

• Good crackle. If I want a good crackle (that classic gingersnaps look), I typically place them on the top rack of the oven. Then make sure to tap the pan on the counter when you pull them out. 
• Wet hands. Lightly wet your hands with water before rolling the dough into balls. This will help any of the dough from sticking to your hands.
• Perfect rounds. If your gingerbread whoopie pies are a bit wonky-shaped once they’re baked, take a spatula and gently nudge the edges back into shape while they’re still hot from the oven. They taste just as good if they aren’t perfect though!

Storage

These cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. I actually prefer them on the 2nd day once the spiced flavors have had a chance to deepen.

Freezing frosted cookies: To prevent your gingerbread whoopie pies from sticking together when freezing, place them in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze them for one hour. Once the cookies are hard, you can stack them in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to 3 months.