Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
I had to save the best for last this week. Oatmeal Cream Pies were my all time favorite. There’s just something about that soft chewy oatmeal cookies with the cream filling smooshed between.
I have a confession to make about the store bought version of this cookie. When I was in High School, I was the yearbook editor senior year with a good friend of mine K. He and I had a class period each day to do yearbook work as an independent study class. We had the yearbook room to ourselves for one hour a day. It was a lot of fun. We kept Oatmeal Cream Pies in the yearbook drawer and would house these things on a regular basis. We’d go through a disgusting amount of these cookies in one hour. Thank goodness for my high-school metabolism (which has since vanished), as well as my stomach of steel. Oh man, parts of high school were a good time.
Back to reality. In the past 10+ years since then, my stomach has become more sensative to dairy and other foods, and I have to work to not gain weight. I’ve learned a lot about how to eat healthy and gained quite the love of cooking and baking. I’ve also learned that most store bought foods can be made a hundred times better at home.
These cookies are no exception. The brown sugar in the cookies keeps them perfectly soft and the filling is so much better than what’s in the store bought version. It’s like a homemade marshmallow fluff, and it’s amazing. I packaged them in celophane bags so they were easy to throw into lunches for me and Hubby this week.
One Year Ago: Best Dang Thing Ever Bars
Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
Yield: 24
Ingredients:
For the Cookies
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp boiling water
For the Filling
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp unflavored gelatin (about 1 1/2 packets)
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup water (divided)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
8 ounces vegetable shortening
Directions:
Make the cookies
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet and set aside (or use parchment).
Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, flour, and baking powder. Add to the creamed mixture. Add the cinnamon and oats. Mix well.
In a small dish, add the baking soda to the boiling water, and then stir the mixture into the rest of the batter. Mix well.
Drop by the tablespoon onto the baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake until the cookies are firm and just starting to turn golden around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack or a plate.
Make the filling
In a small measuring cup, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water. Let stand, stirring once or twice until the gelatin softens, about 5 minutes.
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the granulated sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup hot water until well blended. Continuing to stir, raise the heat to high and bring to a full boil. Continue boiling for 30 seconds. Immediately remove from the heat. Stir in the gelatin mixture until it dissolves completely.
Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the vanilla.
With a mixer on medium speed, beat for 20 seconds. Gradually raise the speed to high and beat until the mixture is stiffened, white, very fluffy, and cooled to barely warm, about 5 minutes.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar.
Add the shortening and beat until completely smooth.
The filling will set up as it sits, so wait until it is thick enough to spread or pipe before filling the cookies.
Recipe from How to Eat a Cupcake
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I love it! Where did you get the jars? Now I totally wanna do this for xmas gifts!
/Clara
I looked everywhere and just couldn’t find them. I ended up ordering them from Amazon. They weren’t very cheap so that was a bummer…
Ah bummer. What size are the jars? I wonder if Ikea would have them? Whats the amazon link?
/Clara
I ordered them from here. You want the wide mouth jars so the cupcakes fit and the 1/2 pint size is perfect.
The yellow cupcakes didn’t rise much so I added more frosting to fill the jar and the chocolate ones rose quite a bit so they had less frosting. My sister said that the chocolate one had the perfect amount of frosting or could use a smidge more, so you want a cupcake that has at least a small dome.
haha, i’ve never seen that before 🙂 love it!
OH FUN! I’ve seriously always thought about doing this and never did. I’m starring this post to remind myself at Christmas. Too cute!!
I have been dying to try this ever since I saw it last year on someone else’s blog. They actually baked the cake in the jar and then iced it like a cupcake. I am going to have to order some of those iddy jars! Too cute!
Hmmm…might have to do this for Christmas instead of those “ingredients in a jar” thing we were thinking of.
I really want to try this, but I keep reading online that you shouldn’t put frosting in the jar because it will get moldy by the time it reaches its destination. I’m sure you would have heard if it was moldy when it got to your friend right? I would just be so embarrassed if that happened. Any help?
Renee – I’ve done this twice and both times haven’t heard of any mold. I froze the cupcakes/frosting in the jars prior to shipping them. I also shipped in the winter. My one sister even didn’t go get her package from the office until a week after it arrived and it was still good. I would guess she ate her cupcakes about 10 days after I sent them. I’m not sure if shipping in warm weather will have an impact on potential mold…
Alright I’ll definitely give it a try then. It will make for a very good Easter present for my faraway friends =)
Oh that’s a good idea!! I might have to order some more jars and do the same myself…
What a clever idea! I would love to get a cupcake in the mail! 🙂 Maybe I’ll send out Valentine’s Day Cupcakesnext year!
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Love these!! We have featured you on our blog. http://cutecupcakesallthetime.blogspot.com
Did you freeze them before shipping? The jars looked frosted…
beantownbaker — February 24th, 2013 @ 10:21 am
I did freeze them. They defrosted as they were shipped. I’ve done it with and without the freezing depending on the weather and whatnot.
What shipping method did you use? Overnight or Express???