Gingerbread Whoopie Pies (Dairy-Free!)

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

For the dry ingredients, in a large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat pastry flour, sea salt, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg and whisk to combine. Set aside.

For the wet ingredients, in a separate large bowl, combine unsweetened applesauce, coconut sugar, egg, melted, cooled coconut oil, unsulphured molasses, and non-dairy buttermilk (which can be made by combining coconut milk with lemon juice and letting it sit for 5 minutes).

Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, mix until well combined and smooth. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and continue to mix until smooth.

Drop a heaping tablespoonful of dough onto a baking sheet. Make sure to leave enough space in between and try to get the amounts as equal as possible.

Place into the oven and bake for 8–10 minutes, until edges start to crisp. Remove from oven and carefully transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookies.

While the cookies are cooling, make the cream filling.

Remove the hardened liquid from cans of refrigerated full fat coconut milk and place into a large mixing bowl, along with vanilla extract. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer again, mix this together until smooth and creamy.

Add yogurt and continue to mix until combined. Slowly add powdered coconut sugar (which can easily be made by blending together a cup of coconut sugar with 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch in a kitchen blender until the sugar is fine, like powdered sugar).

To assemble the whoopie pies, grab one of the cooled gingerbread cookies and spread the coconut sweet cream all over the bottom side, reaching all the way to the edges. Gently top with another cookie, flat side down, to create the whoopie pie.

Notes:
1. To make non-dairy buttermilk, combine coconut milk with lemon juice and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. To make powdered coconut sugar, blend together 1 cup of coconut sugar with 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch until the sugar is fine, like powdered sugar. Use ¼ cup of this mixture in this recipe.