Lemon Whoopie Pies
Forget about saving room for dessert. One of these lemon whoopie pies is a whole meal in itself! These beauties are not the delicate, petite, wallflower cookie. They bake up into a beast of a cookie. They’re doubley soft, cakey cookie goodness filled with a lemony cream cheese filling.
These are not a snacking cookie. They’re a “sit down and shut up and eat your freakin cookie” cookie. That’s not too hard to do, right?
These cookies are a play on the traditional chocolate and marshmallow whoopie pies. They come out to be absolutely enormous, so feel free to make minis if you don’t have as big a cookie capacity as I do. They’re best a day after baking, served cold from the fridge.
Try it, you’ll like it.
Lemon Whoopie Pies
the Bit Fat Cookie book
makes 8 giant cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) usalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk.
Lemon Cream Cheese Filling
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest until smooth, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during the mixing. Add the egg, lemon juice and vanilla, mixing until blended, about 1 minute. The batter may look curdled. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the buttermilk. Mix in the remaining flour mixture just until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth again.
Drop heaping tablespoons (about 3 level Tablespoons each for a giant cookie) of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops feel firm, about 12 minutes. With the exception of a time line at the edges, the tops of the cookies should not brown. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the filling-
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice until thoroughly blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. If the filling is too soft to hold its shape, chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Turn half of the cookies bottom side up. Leaving a 1/4-inch plain edge, use a thin metal spatula to spread each one with about 1/4 up of filling. Gently press the flat bottoms of the remaining cookies onto the fillings.
Wrap each cookie in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve cold. The wrapped cookies can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
35 Responses to “Lemon Whoopie Pies”
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Seriously, I think I love you. These look amazing and just another excuse for me to make a lemon dessert. I am totally making these SOON!
I love these cookies - so simple so cute - the first thing that popped into my warped mind is that you need to send a copy of your link to The View to the attention of Whoopie Goldberg. Imagine the possibilities - stranger things have happened.
Whoopie! As a lover of all things lemon, these cookies are speaking to me, Joy! They’re saying, “choose me, pick me, love me!” LOL!
Love them! I so want to make them right this minute.
oh joy you are killing me!! My inner cookie monster is dying to get out now
I bet that cream cheese filling is divine. I could eat it up with a spoon out of the pan!
I love whoopie pies and have had them on my mind lately. I made some peanut butter ones that were great, but there is always a special spot in my heart for lemon!!
I think that your blog deserves the E for Excellent award! Feel free to check out my post to get the badge!
Oh my goodness! Those look amaaaazing.
I went to the store today while my cheesecake was baking - very quick - so I could get buttermilk…just had to make these cookies tonight while watching baseball…what could be better. Spring in NC, baseball, and well cookies…thanks again Joy.
Great minds think alike and all that. Did you see the lemon whoopie pies I posted last week? I added cornmeal for texture and made your brown sugar cream cheese frosting but added raspberry preserves to it - they were awesome. These ones look great with the all lemon flavor - yum!
Mmmm! Forget the cookie just give me the filling. I’m one of those people that open the Oreo cookie and eat the inside first. Just beautiful!
Made these pies…just finished up at 10pm…easy, relatively quick really. Look good, but think I will wait until tomorrow to taste…maybe…
MMM, sign me up…those look great.
Had one for breakfast this morning with coffee. Taste was great, much more delicate than I thought…a high-end feel if you will. I will be making these more often. My pies didn’t look quite as good as Joy’s (in terms of color)and I think I should’ve let them bake another few minutes, but overall, good.
…mmmm! They sound fantastic! Especially the filling.
[…] Pies at Joy The Baker Posted in April 10th, 2008 by paula in recipe I just had to try these Lemon Whoopie Pies from Joy The Baker. These just scream springtime, so if you’re finally enjoying some lovely weather, bake up some […]
Just discovered you! This is one seriously gorgeous site, I’m so glad I blogged into you. Lovely and delicious in all aspects. These Whoopies look delightfully naughty - great pics.
I keep seeing whoopie pies! I personally like your lemon version since I’m a lemon-addict!
Holy crap you want me to have a heart attack, don’t you? lol, these look fantastic! From the photos, I didn’t realize these were “big” cookies, but this is very, very tempting for this weekend’s dessert… *drool*
They look yummy, Joy! Anything with lemon has a very special place in my heart.
As I sit here at my desk eating Lemonheads (I SWEAR), I am feeling an emptiness in my stomach. An emptiness that must be filled with — LEMON WHOOPIE PIES!!!! These look awesome. . .
Joy - Thank you for adding a way to subscribe to your blog! I’m making some serious changes to mine (moving from one blogging software to another), so stay tuned!
[…] warm weather, blooming flowers, and spring breezes…. Joy the Baker has an awesome recipe for Lemon Whoopie Pies! Do those sound like spring or […]
Wow they look utterly delicious. I’m going to have to nip out to the shop first thing and fetch some eggs so I can make some of these. I suspect my diet is one day further away!
Ah well, eat well and prosper!
Your Blog and Recipe get an F
For Fantastic!!!!!! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Just found you through stumbleupon and loving the blog and the nice clean food pics! The design of the blog is also very simple and impressive! Would love to have some of your photos on my site http://www.ifoods.tv so as they can see a greater audience. Keep up the good work on the blog.
Hi there,
I just stumbled accross your blog by using stumbleupon and love the design of the whole thing! I normally skip straight past food blogs as I have over 20 in my RSS and dont even have enough time to read the ones that I have! I am started out as a blogger myself and always tried to keep the design simple like yours as I think it is crucial, especially if you can back it up with some nice food pics like yours! Keep up the good work and if you feel like sharing some of the photos with other foodies pop over to http://www.ifoods.tv which is my new site for foodies! Cheers!
Very nice site! I’ll have to try more baking. Never did much except for some bread and pies. I did do a nice vegetarian puff pastry thing one time. Maybe I’ll do that next on my blog. If you get a chance take a look. http:/www.chefbenwa.com. Keep up the good work.
You have a nice baking site. Thank you for sharing. Keep up the tasty work.
Love and greetings Ruud, The Netherlands
[…] til Joy the Baker her den anden dag - helt specifikt til indlægget om det, der på engelsk hedder Lemon Whoopie Pies. På dansk har vi valgt at døbe dem citroncookies med citroncreme. De smager fantastisk - og flere […]
Hi Joy,
I took the liberty to do two things:
1) My wife and I tried this wonderful recipe and made some marvelous cookies. Unfortunately, we did not use the specified amount of sugar in the creme (there was not enough!) and got some very slippery lemon creme. It is not recommendable. A tip to everybody: adjust the amount of the remaining ingredients, if you don’t have enough of one of them
2) I translated your recipe to Danish and used one of your photos in our blog. I just thought, you would like to know that. To my knowledge there is no Danish term for ‘whoopie pie’, so I translated the name (roughly) to lemon cookies with lemon creme - but I guess you can tell by the name of the blog entry.
Thanks for a very well-written blog with interesting and wonderful recipes.
Yours,
Ulrik Høyer Kold
URL: http://ulrikkold.dk/hoeyerkold/2008/05/01/citroncookies-med-citroncreme/
OMG. These cookies are AWESOME!!! I made about five dozen minis for a bake sale I had at work recently and they sold out in less than an hour! I also had to make some for home and everyone in my house loves them! Just thinking about them makes my mouth water. hehe. Thank you for also posting a link to Demolition Desserts. I got it for my birthday last week! Thanks for helping make a birthday all the more memorable! =)
Millie
I don’t even have to make them to know that these are going to be delicious!!! I love all things lemon, and I’m sure I’d love these too. I really wish I had a lemon and cream cheese so I could make them right now. Very great pictures too, makes me want to try everything that you write about
I just love this recipe and this site! It has my mouth watering for more. Your photos look like you can reach out and grab those pies!! I would love to include this recipe on my site! Please consider doing so….www.ravingrecipes.com
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe!!
yum, these look SO good!!