Strawberry Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies – Gluten Free

NOTES:
– If you don’t have strawberries,try blueberries or raspberries instead. I bet they would be fabulous!
– I am in love with brown rice flour, but if you cannot find it feel free to use gluten free oat flour instead.
– This recipe will yield a lot of strawberry sauce. Use the rest as a sauce to drizzle over these pies, add to yogurt parfaits, sauce up your pancakes or French toast. Also great stirred into oatmeal.

METHOD

Strawberry Sauce: In a medium saucepan combine strawberries and water. Heat over medium high heat until boiling, reduce heat and simmer for about 8 minutes. Berries should be soft and saucy. Remove pan from heat and let the sauce cool. Then purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. Store sauce in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Whoopie Pies: Preheat oven to 350˚F with the rack in the middle. Line an 18×13 inch cookie sheet pan with parchment paper or Silpat liner.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine all wet ingredients in another bowl adding Stevia drops last so you can adjust to taste. Mix well, so there are no lumps. Combine wet and dry ingredients until you have a smooth batter.

Scoop 1 tablespoon of batter, place on cookie sheet and shape cookies into slightly flattened, round discs with your hands. Clean hands periodically as the batter is sticky. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. Let cool a bit and then transfer to racks.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling: Combine whipped cream cheese, strawberry purée and then sweeten to taste with a dropper or two of Stevia.

Assembly: Take a cookie, pipe some cream cheese filling onto the flat side. Top with the flat side of another cookie to make a sandwich. Sprinkle crushed freeze dried strawberries on top if desired.

Finished pies can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to a few days.