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. 
Dark chocolate truffles in cookie form? Um, YES!!! I’ll take a dozen for myself and another dozen for later, please.
Wow – these sound good! and I truly do not understand how people can just “not be into chocolate!” It is my favorite!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:26 pm
Yea, I really don’t get it either. Oh well, more for me!
Oh wow, chocolate truffle cookies sound divine! These look ridiculously good! Love that they’re salted too!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:27 pm
I have been sprinkling salt on all of my cookies recently. It makes them much more adult and less super-sweet.
Yum these look divine!
I’m always in need of a chocolate fix! I have several friends that claim they are not chocolate people, yet I find whenever I make something chocolate + salt, they are all over it!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:28 pm
I definitely find that people who claim they aren’t chocolate people rarely say no to any homemade baked goods. Chocolate or otherwise.
Oh my! These look divine 🙂 I’d love to make these babies soon!
these look amazing!! and how thick that batter is 🙂 love the sea salt!
beantownbaker — May 8th, 2013 @ 8:29 pm
The batter was basically ganache. You could have just made truffles from it directly.
I love any and all things dark chocolate. These look so decadent!
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you’re working with?
I’m having some minor security problems with my latest blog and I’d like to find something
more safeguarded. Do you have any suggestions?
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:56 pm
I use WordPress
Wow! Those look so perfectly decadent! I’m practically drooling on my screen 😉
Just made these. Worried I didn’t bake them long enough… however they still tasted divine. Waiting to get the verdict from my husband on them.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:11 pm
I think underbaking these sounds like a great idea. I might have to do that next time.
Since I’m trying this recipe for the first time, can I halve the entire recipe?
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:12 pm
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I didn’t see this comment until now! I don’t see why you couldn’t make a half batch of these cookies. Did you try it? How did they turn out?
These are the most amazing chocolate cookies I have ever made. Everyone with whom I have shared them have gone absolutly nuts and want the recipe. I do not wet my hands when rolling the cookies into balls—too messy. I just let my hands get sticky and rinse and dry them after making several balls. This is one of the best recipes on Pinterest.
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 12:13 pm
Thanks for the kind words! So glad you enjoy these cookies. I was wondering if getting my hands wet actually helped with the messiness very much. Next time I’ll be sure to just go at it without dealing with the water.
Hey! I tried halving the recipe…but it melted while in the oven. Became runny & all of them just stuck together 🙁
I tried just one batch. Anything I can do to fix the remaining batter?
beantownbaker — June 18th, 2013 @ 4:01 pm
Interesting… How did you account for half of an egg? And is your baking powder past it’s expiration date?
Ohh! Looks like I’ve added a lil too much egg. Damn! Any way I can fix the batter? Add more flour perhaps? Plz help!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 7:12 am
I’d add a little more flour to see if you can balance out the extra amount of egg in there.
I added 1/4 cup more flour & a teensy bit of baking powder to my messed up batter & they came out wonderfully! They’re so gooey & yumm that my husband & son (who never eats chocolate!) finished six cookies at one go!
Amazing recipe!! Thank you so much for your help, I appreciate it !
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:00 am
Oh GOOD! So glad you were able to make them work. Aren’t they divine?
U bet! They are sinfully delicious! Sent some in my son’s snack pack & I have mommies calling for these cookies!
I’m officially ur No.1 fan now! 🙂
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:18 am
Aww Thanks! 🙂
Hi, I was wondering if I could put them in the freezer instead of the fridge for a shorter period of time? If so, how long should I put them in the freezer for instead of the fridge?
beantownbaker — June 27th, 2013 @ 8:06 am
Hm. You could definitely try it. I would think it’s still going to need an hour or so in the freezer since you want it to set up pretty well. Let me know how it turns out if you do.