Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

These got all-around 5-star ratings at work and with the fam. I, myself, feel they are too good....I couldn't stop eating them. Trust me, these are mucho better once they've had a chance to chill in the fridge for a few hours. So plan accordingly. Enjoy!

For the cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin
1 1/4 sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:
4 oz. lowfat cream cheese
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

To make cookies:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease cookie sheets or line them with parchment.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Set aside.
In a larg bowl, cream together butter and sugar at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, making sure they are well combined. Add pumpkin and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add dry ingredient mixture a little at a time until well combined.

At this point, the recipe says to drop by heaping measuring teaspoons onto a greased cookie sheet. I started doing this and it was not easy at at...My advice: spoon the mixture into a pastry or ziploc bag and squeeze out little blobs - it's easier and it makes them prettier. Warning, this is messy any way you go. Bake for 10 minutes or until you can poke them and they spring back. Let cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet and move to cooling racks. You should aim to make about 72 little cookies.

To make filling:
Beat together cream cheese, vanilla and butter until fluffy and well combined. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. This is where your countertop mixer comes in handy, because this stuff needs to be beat a good 5 minutes to get a good fluffy consistency.

To assemble:
Again, to make them pretty, I suggest loading the frosting into a pastry or ziploc bag and piping it onto the cookies then make little sandwiches. Much easier than spreading. Once your sandwiches are made, put in a covered container and chill. Trust me, these reach peak deliciousness once they are chilled. Ohhh my, so good.