Oatmeal is the star of the show in these Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Creme Pies! In the hum drum of busy mornings and instant oatmeal, we forget what incredible flavor and texture oatmeal can really have. Toasted, sweetened, buttery oatmeal creates a burst of old-fashioned flavor that might send your mind back to a simpler time. And these treats capitalize on the unique texture oatmeal brings to the table (see what I did there…)- the rustic goodness of toasted oats and a chewy cookie center. A generous dollop of Vanilla Ermine Frosting in between finishes the best cookie sandwich ever!
Homemade oatmeal creme pies were a rare delicacy in my childhood, which may explain my appreciation of their delicious details. Little Debbie’s were more common. As a little girl, I remember rolling out of bed on Saturday morning and dragging my disheveled, hungry self into my Granny’s kitchen. She was often sitting at the kitchen table eating a Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Creme Pie. She said it was ok to eat for breakfast because she scraped off the frosting…. With that *questionable* logic, Old Fashioned Oatmeal Creme Pies are definitely breakfast appropriate. They’re packed with oats and milk! Enjoying an Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Creme Pie is, in a little way, like having the yummiest breakfast with my Granny.
Pro Tips:
- Cookie sandwiches come together best when both cookies are perfectly round. Check out this post on Achieving the Perfectly Round Cookie to make sure your Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Creme Pies are flawless (cookies of all shapes taste amazing though…). Also, these cookies spread to create flat cookies – perfect for cookie sandwiches – which makes reining in the sides that much more crucial. These cookies are larger than most, so I use a storage container with a large round mouth rather than my go-to cookie mug for rounding out these cookies.
- Refrigerate the dough balls for about an hour for crisper, flatter cookies (still a little bit of chewy in the middle though!). Increase that time to several hours or overnight for somewhat thicker, chewier cookies. Either way is a toasted oat win!
- Choose Old Fashioned Oats (also called “rolled” oats) for this recipe. Quick oats, instant oats, or steel cut oats could impact your cookie texture big time.
- Frosting amount is a personal preference. Feel free to adjust the amount of frosting you make based on your ideal frosting dollop size.
- The bake time provided is a recommendation, but ovens cook differently. Keep a close eye on your cookies after about 12 minutes to determine how quickly they’ll bake in your oven. When done, they should be starting to turn golden brown on the edges, but still look underdone in the middle. Remember, they’ll continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet even after you remove them from your oven. Don’t overbake!
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Creme Pies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cup flour
- 2⅔ cup rolled oats, (or "Old Fashioned" oats)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Vanilla Ermine Frosting
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons
- 2 cups sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups butter, softened
Instructions
- Melt butter in a medium sized pot and allow to cool until room temperature or slightly warm.
- Stir sugars, egg, and vanilla into butter in medium pot until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, and salt).
- Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture just until combined (over stirring could impact the final product). The mixture will be a little thin.
- Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes. The dough will thicken into a nice consistency to roll into balls. Use 2 tablespoons of dough for each dough ball. Refrigerate dough balls in a sealed container for an hour for thinner, crispier cookies (still a little chewy in the middle). Refrigerate overnight for thicker, chewier cookies.
- On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, bake at 325°F for 14-15 minutes or until just golden brown on the edges. The cookies will spread (the ones refrigerated for an hour will spread more than those kept in the fridge overnight). Don't worry – thin cookies make a lovely cookie sandwich!! (So do the thicker ones!) But that does mean to give each dough ball plenty of space on the cookie sheet.
- Immediately after removing cookies from the oven, follow instructions for Achieving the Perfectly Round Cookie. This step is super important to create uniform cookies that meld together nicely as sandwiches. Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Then remove cookies to another flat surface to cool completely.
- Pipe or spread Vanilla Ermine Frosting on the bottom of half of the cookies. Top with the other half of each cookie to make cookie sandwiches. Enjoy!
Vanilla Ermine Frosting
- Whisk flour, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan until smooth and without lumps.
- Place the saucepan over medium heat and slowly stir in milk and extract as the mixture heats.
- Continue to stir almost continuously until the milk custard reaches a thick pudding consistency.
- Remove the mixture from heat and either press plastic wrap onto the surface of the milk custard or continue to stir every few minutes while cooling to prevent a film from forming.
- This mixture must be slightly cooler than room temperature to move to the next step. Allow to cool on the counter and then refrigerate until ready to use (up to three days). If leaving in the refrigerator for a lengthy amount of time, allow to warm up on the countertop until cool (not cold) for about an hour before moving to the next step.
- Place slightly softened butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until very light in color and fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to whip, adding the milk custard mixture to the butter by tablespoons until fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during this process and finish with a final quick whip.
