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. 
Yum! These look FABULOUS!!
http://www.simplysweeter.blogspot.com
I’m so curious to see what homemade marshmallows taste like! They look pretty awesome in the pictures!
yum!!! i love homemade marshmallows!!! i like to chocolate dip 2 sides so they look like little ice cream sandwiches!
I wouldn’t even need chocolate and graham crackers to enjoy these. I could gobble them up all by their lonesome.
Hmm, I would think they’re really tricky but it sounds like I was wrong. I’m not the biggest marshmallow fan but I have a feeling that homemade taste way better!
Marshmallows have been on my shortlist for a while now. You just pushed me over the edge. I can just see some dipped in chocolate or rolled in toasted coconut and packaged up for the holidays! Question – where do you find the gelatin in the supermarket? In the baking aisle?
Rachel
http://theavidappetite.com
You can actually put the marshmallows in the fridge, and they will set up faster.
I don’t like store-bought marshmallows (unless they’re toasted), but the homemade ones just have such an incredible texture… and I love that you can flavor them however you want. I used to make 5-spice marshmallows at Flour. I really want to make them at home.
These look gorgeous! I might have to make some for hot chocolate season.
I
WANT
THESE
NOW.
Seriously. These look amazing!!
How many grams of gelatine are in each pack? I have a feeling different countries have different amounts…
I had a great cassis marshmallow at an afternoon tea recently and thought they were really hard to make.
I have yet to make homemade marshmallows….I need to get over that fear!
Silly question…
If I was making Rice Krispie Treats could I just mix the cereal in and then pour it all into a pan to set up?
I just thought they might taste better with the homemade marshmallow.
Thanks.
Rachel – The gelatin is near the Jello in my super market. It’s up on the top shelf.
Cupcake Kelly – My box of gelatin says 1 oz for 4 small envelopes. Does that help?
yipeiokyay – Sounds like it could work. You might want to throw some butter in too? Alton Brown did say you can use them to make Rice Krispies treats during the episode, but he implied that you do it after they have set up.
To everyone who has been afraid of making marshmallows – it’s seriously SO EASY. Do it!
I love love love making marshmallows! You can flavor them, too, so try out different extracts and flavorigns in them for an extra kick. Peppermint ones with mini chocolate chips on top are AWESOME
Okay, even tho I read your blog often, this is the first recipe I’ve actually tried. I’ve been dying to do homemade ‘mallows because the stay-puff ones taste like the gas they use to puff them up. 🙁 Mine are drying now, so no report on how they came out yet, but I have to agree – except for my nervousness working with hot candy (legacy of a drop of hot caramel on a bare foot that left a mark for years) – these were super-easy.
Question: my gelatin smelled kind of bad when it had sat in the water for a while, tho the smell seems to have gone away. Did this happen to you? Could my gelatin have been a little funky? (Can gelatin even go funky?). Thx!!
Virginia – I do remember the gelatin having a weird smell that does go away. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. A friend told me that if you can’t wait the full 4-hours you can pop them in the fridge to speed up the process.