Making whoopie (pies)

Autumn is a time for colorful foliage, crisp temperatures and, of course, pumpkin pie spice. On this trip around the sun, my pie spice comes in the form of a fall-flavored whoopie pie.

A whoopie pie consists of two large, soft cookies sandwiched around a creamy filling. With roots in Pennsylvania and New England, whoopie pie is the official state treat of Maine. The chocolate version stuffed with vanilla, sometimes called a big-fat Oreo, is the most common rendition.

Mel Redding of Jesse Pepper’s Smoke Shack in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, hails from Vermont. Accordingly, her pumpkin spice whoopie pie contains a maple cream cheese filling.

Redding owns and operates Jesse Pepper’s alongside her children Lilli, Ollie and Travis. When her daughter Bailey got married in Bar Harbor, Maine, they served whoopie pies at her wedding. Redding’s other son, Jesse, aka Jesse Peppers, died in a car crash in 2020. The last time she saw him, he made her promise that the family would start a restaurant together. Jesse Pepper’s, perched on a high, windy plateau between the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, is a green shoot that grew from that promise.

Jesse’s exuberant spirit remains present in the kitchen, where his urn and knives have a place of honor, and his favorite dubstep music plays every afternoon. Although the entire family has a passion for food, Jesse was the only member to graduate from culinary school, and his experience laces the menu. A larger-than-life portrait of this larger-than-life man smiles at you when you enter the dining room.

In 2022, after I wrote about the show-stealing potato salad at Jesse Pepper’s, Redding said they began receiving visitors who had also lost children. People made pilgrimages from as far as Nevada, looking to connect with Mel and her family.

“There’s a bond among people who’ve lost a child,” she told me.

I popped into Jesse Pepper’s a few weeks ago for some Texas tacos, filled with burnt ends of brisket, cheesy potatoes and pickled jalapenos. Mel gave me a pumpkin-maple whoopie pie to sample, and I knew I had to pass the recipe along.

I was living in Vermont when I first heard the expression “frost on the pumpkin.” It comes from a poem by James Whitcomb Riley and conveys the feeling of sitting by a warm fire on a chilly evening. I will leave you with the opening stanza of Riley’s poem, followed by Redding’s recipe for pumpkin-maple whoopie pies.

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,

And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,

And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,

With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,

As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Happy autumn.

Pumpkin-maple whoopie pies

These big, fat, pumpkin-spice-flavored treats will make you feel cozy while tickling your sweet tooth.

Makes six whoopie pies

Pumpkin cookies

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin pie
• spice
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups pumpkin puree
• Two eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In one bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and pie spices. In another bowl, combine the eggs, oil, sugar, pumpkin puree and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Don’t overmix.

Use an ice cream scoop to dollop 1/4 cup portions of dough onto an oiled cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes.

Maple cream cheese frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 8 ounces soft cream cheese
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and stir until light and fluffy. Make sure the cookies have cooled completely, then form the sandwiches.