High Altitude Carrot Cake Whoopie Pies
Soft and fluffy carrot cake whoopie pies or sandwich cookies, flavored with brown butter and warm spices, and filled with cream cheese frosting.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 ½ oz peeled and finely grated carrots (about 1 cup, not packed)
- ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
Filling
- 4 oz (1/2 block) full fat cream cheese, cold
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ¼ - 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp meringue powder
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cookies
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for several minutes, until nutty golden brown solids form at the bottom of the pan. Immediately scrape the butter and the brown solids into a bowl.
- Add the grated carrots, applesauce, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla, and whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir into a thick batter with a spatula until well combined.
- Chill the batter for 1 hour, uncovered, in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.
- Use a medium cookie scoop with a release lever (2 tbsp capacity) to scoop the batter onto the baking sheet, leaving 3 inches between each cookie. Refrigerate the remaining batter until needed.
- Bake the cookies for about 12-14 minutes, until they have spread and puffed, and there's no raw batter on top of the cookies when you gently touch them.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for several minutes, then gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before filling. You should be able to get about 26 cookies, for 13 sandwiches.
Filling
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed for several minutes, until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar and meringue powder, mixing until combined. Add the vanilla. Increase the speed to medium, and mix for about 3-5 minutes, until smooth and fluffy.
- Turn half the cooled cookies over, so the bottoms are facing up. Spread or pipe the buttercream onto the cookies, then top with a second cookie to make a sandwich.
- Refrigerate the cookies in an airtight container until ready to serve. For a finishing touch, I sprinkled the cookies with a little granulated sugar.
Notes
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months.
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