Celebrate the holidays with gingerbread whoopie pies. Two classic soft and chewy ginger cookies are sandwiched together with fluffy cream cheese frosting for a perfectly spiced treat!
Classic Gingerbread Whoopie Pie Recipe
I’m always so excited when gingerbread season rolls around! The warm spices of my favorite gingerbread cake 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. Plus, two cookies with frosting in between doubles the fun!
- Sweet creamy filling: Instead of a marshmallow 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!
Recipe Ingredients
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 to soften butter before you start combining it with the cream cheese so you avoid lumps in your frosting.
Frosting Variation
Simple cream cheese frosting goes perfectly with these spiced gingerbread whoopie pie cookies, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop there!
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Recipe Tips
- Measure flour properly. Too much flour results in a dense cookie. Brush up on how to measure flour accurately for all your baked goods this season.
- 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.
- Remember to chill the dough. This step helps prevent the gingerbread whoopie pies from spreading out too much while they’re baking.
- 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!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, it’s inevitable that some may come out the sides when you bite into this whoopie pie so keep a napkin handy! Refrigerating the cookies before serving helps slightly as everything thickens and stays more intact.
Thanks to my tips on freezing cookie dough, you can have freshly baked gingerbread whoopie pies anytime you want!
Just 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.
Let the frozen dough balls sit on the baking sheet as the oven preheats. Then bake the as directed, adding 1-2 minutes to the original baking time if needed.
These whoopie pies are filled with cream cheese frosting, so you should refrigerate them. 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.
Yes, 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.
Looking for more sandwich cookie recipes? Try my chocolate whoopie pies, oatmeal cream pie cookies or these spiced pumpkin whoopie pies.
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Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
Ginger Cookies
- ¾ cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar , packed
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup granulated sugar , for rolling the cookies
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar , plus more as needed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Ginger Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper,
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream 3/4 softened butter and 1 cup brown sugar 1 minute, or until fluffy. Add in one egg and beat until smooth. Mix in 1/4 cup molasses until combined.
- In a medium bowl, sift or whisk 2 1/4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix into the butter mixture with a spoon just until combined, being careful not to overmix. Cover and chill 10 to 15 minutes.
- Place 1/4 cup granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. Using a medium cookie scoop (or about 1 1/2 Tablespoons), roll the cookie dough into a ball. Roll the dough into the sugar. Place on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Lightly flatten the tops with the palm of your hand.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the sheet 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Tip: If your cookies aren't cracking as much as you'd like, bang the pan on the stove right after they come out of the oven to crack the cookies. They will settle as they cool.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a medium bowl, mix together 1/4 cup butter and 4 ounces cream cheese with an electric mixer 2 minutes, or until creamy. Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and mix an additional minute. Add more powdered sugar, if desired.
- Once the cookies have cooled, dip the bottom of a cookie in cream cheese frosting.
- Stack another cookie on top of the frosting. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: American, Christmas, Cookies, Desserts, Freezer-Friendly, Frosted Cookies, Holiday Cookies, Nut-Free, Vegetarian
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
I’m making these Saturday for our yearly Christmas cookies but I was wondering if I can make the dough on Friday and leave it in the fridge until I bake them on Saturday?
Yes that is fine to make the dough ahead of time. Enjoy!
Can sustituye the all-purpose flour for almond flour?
Hi, almond flour has not been tested in this recipe and I don’t think it would work as there is no gluten in almond flour. You would need to adjust many other ingredients as well. If you try let us know how it goes!
I only received Christmas Cookie recipes for days 1-3. Are you sending them daily?
I love your recipes and would hate to miss any!
Hi Katie, so glad you love the cookie recipes! The emails will be coming, we look forward to you trying them! Thanks again for the kind words.
Made these for our holiday party at work and got so many requests for the recipes. I’m planning to make another batch for our family gathering.
These are so cute! My family enjoyed these gingerbread whoopie pies, they love to add extra cream cheese filling. Thanks for this fun recipe Jamielyn, we’ll surely have these again.
Great recipe. Easy to follow and the cookies turned out just as expected, chewy, sweet and absolutely delicious.
So glad you enjoyed the gingerbread whoopie pies! Thanks for your review :)
I love gingerbread during the holiday season (all year really). These whoopie pies are perfect for holiday gatherings.