A fun and bright lemon-flavored whoopie pie to brighten your day. The cream cheese filling will leave you wanting more. Not too sweet, not too tart.
Hope all the Mother’s out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. I sure did. The weather was warm and sunny with hardly any humidity. My daughter and I ate lunch with my mother at an Italian Restaurant on their covered patio. I was so stuffed I could barely eat dinner. Italian food will do that to you. 🙂
We did learn a lesson though. It’s a huge mistake to not make reservations for Mother’s Day. Our first choice was a restaurant that has a brunch-style menu, but doesn’t take reservations. We figured we’d get there around 11:30 and maybe we would wait 30-45 minutes for a table. Wrong. Try 2 hours. We came up with a Plan B fast. I hadn’t eaten anything because I was “saving up”. (You do that too right?) And my blood sugar was dropping by the minute.
Luckily, not many people think about having a heavy Italian meal before noon and we had our choice of seats on their patio. And a very delicious meal, followed by the best dessert I’ve had in ages. It looked like chocolate cheesecake, but it was a mousse with a light but very rich taste. The stuff dreams are made of. Right when we were paying our bill we got a text message that our table was ready at the other restaurant.
I wanted to share Lemon Whoopie Pies because moms are like a bright burst of sunshine bringing joy into so many lives. These sweet and tart treats will brighten any day with their cheerful color. Both the cookies and the filling are flavored with lemon, giving a double dose of lusciousness to every bite. Sometimes whoopie pies can be a little on the sweet side, but not these. The lemon provides plenty of tartness to balance the sugar.
Whoopie Pies are so much fun to make and eat. They basically give you an excuse to spread frosting all over your cookies. And everything tastes better with frosting.
Baking a batch of these bright lemon flavored whoopie pies will brighten your day and the cream cheese frosting will leave you wanting more.
Lemon Whoopie Pies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter,, 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 unsalted butter,, room temperature
- 6 ounces cream cheese,, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together with a whisk and set aside.
- Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter, sugar, and lemon zest at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Add eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla and mix until combined.
- Reduce speed to low and add 1/2 of flour, then the buttermilk, and then remaining flour. Mix just until combined.
- Drop heaping tablespoon full of dough onto baking sheets about 3 inches apart.
- Bake until firm on top, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes and then carefully remove to wire rack.
- To make filling, use a mixer with a paddle attachment beat butter, cream cheese, vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest until combined and smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- Place a large dollop of filling on underside of 1/2 of the cookies and top with remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Source: Joy the Baker via Sweet Pea’s Kitchen
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
Must make these, I love lemon!
Have made 2 batches today, one with brown sugar and one regular sugar. They spread way out and are thin. Do not know why. The flavor is good
Sounds like you had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Italian sounds good, one of my many favorites! and you had Chocolate mousse too! 🙂 🙂
The restaurant my wife choose for Sunday doesn’t take reservations but we got lucky, only had to wait an hour and 15 minutes. It was well worth the wait, we had fun!
Your whoopee pies look great, I often add lemon and lemon zest to my Cream Cheese Icing too!
Michael
The Italian food was very good Michael! Glad your hour and 15 minute wait was worth it. I always feel like a long wait is free reign to eat as much as I want!
Lemon really does add wonderful flavor to cream cheese icing doesn’t it?
Sounds like you had a lovely mother’s day! We made the same mistake of not making reservations…but ended up getting some lovely sandwiches 🙂 I’ve never made a whoopie pie and i honestly think I’ve only had maybe one in my life…but since I’m a lemon dessert lover, these are going on my must -try list!!
these look so yummy!
I adore LEMON anything! I’ve been seeing whoopee pie recipes and been meaning to try one. This may very well be the trick! looks YUM! I also wanted to leave a comment under the bourbon creamed corn, but couldn’t quite figure out how. That sounds incredible. I would think that the bourbon imparts a smoky depth of flavor not dissimilar to if you’d roasted the corn. I’m completely curious now!!
Best!
Now that you said that, I just realized there are no comments for Bourbon Creamed Corn. For some reason the allow comments box wasn’t checked. Strange! Thanks for pointing it out. I never would have known! 🙂
Oh boy, do these sound good. Way better than a chocolate and vanilla one as far as I concerned.
Oh My! Those look amazing. My mouth actually watered looking at them and thinking of the delightful lemon flavor. Beautiful dessert, thanks for sharing it.
Good call on the Plan B! And so glad you had a lovely Mother’s Day! I kept telling my husband it is insane how beautiful the weather always is that day! It was literally raining, dark/humid the days before and rain was forecasted for Sunday earlier in the week but sure enough, it turned totally around and was one of the nicest days ever. That restaurant dessert you had sounds so good – I love it when you end a meal with a memorable dessert! And these whoopie pies are such a nice change – rarely see a lemon version! Whoopie pies are yet another thing I’ve yet to ever make!
These look perfect for summertime! My husband loves lemon, so I’m sure he’d love these!