Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
Soft, cakey chocolate rounds sandwiched with a thick cream cheese filling, these old-fashioned chocolate whoopie pies are made from scratch with Dutch-process cocoa, buttermilk and oil, so they stay tender for days. The batter needs just a short chill, and they bake in 7 minutes.
Servings 15 whoopie pies
Ingredients
For the soft chocolate cookies:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup buttermilk at room temperature
- ¼ cup sunflower oil or canola oil
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cream cheese filling:
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened but not greasy
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened but still cool
- 3 cups powdered sugar plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Make the chocolate cookies:
- In a large bowl, beat ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup packed light brown sugar, ⅓ cup buttermilk, ¼ cup sunflower oil and 3 large eggs for 2 minutes, until smooth and slightly lighter in color.
- Sift 2 cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt over the egg mixture. Stir until just combined, then stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Don’t overmix.
- Cover and refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Near the end of the chill, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Scoop the batter onto light-colored baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving room (at least 2 inches) between mounds, as they expand a lot during baking. Keep the bowl in the fridge between batches.
- Bake for 7 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then remove carefully with a spatula. Be gentle as they're soft and fudgy. Cool completely on a wire rack before filling, about 1 hour.
Make the creamy filling:
- Beat the butter until creamy. Add the cream cheese and beat only until smooth; overbeating makes it runny.
- Add the powdered sugar gradually on low speed, then the vanilla and salt. The filling should hold a peak. If it’s soft, add powdered sugar 2 tablespoons at a time.
Assemble the whoopie pies:
- Spread or pipe filling on the flat side of half the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies and press gently until the filling reaches the edges.
- Chill for about 20 minutes to set the filling.
- Unfilled cookies keep for a few days in an airtight container, or freeze for a month, well wrapped. Filled pies go in the fridge in an airtight container. In both cases, use parchment between layers if needed.
Notes
Baking time: keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. Use a thermometer inside the oven to check that the temperature is right. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
Cocoa powder: the better the cocoa, the better the flavor of these soft cookies/cakes. Always use unsweetened, and, in my experience, the dark ones are the best (this does not apply to the super dark used for making homemade Oreo cookies known as dark cocoa powder).
Variations: after assembling the sandwich cookies, roll them in mini chocolate chips to cover the exposed cream filling.
Updated October 2026: retested recipe. The original version made something closer to chocolate cake tops sandwiched with filling, and some of you loved it that way. But when I retested it, the results weren’t consistent; it worked beautifully for some of you and came out crumbly and dry for others. So I rebuilt the batter to give soft, domed, classic whoopie pies every time: buttermilk for tenderness, oil so they stay soft, a short chill, and a thick cream cheese filling. Made the original and want it back? Here’s the original whoopie pies recipe as a printable PDF.
