Oatmeal Cream Pies

Every once in a while I get nostalgic and like to eat an oatmeal cream pie - you know, the ones that come in the little wrappers? I loved eating the little packaged snack cakes and cookies as a kid and want to find ways to make them at home without all of the extra additives and preservatives. So I'm today I'm beginning a "Little Debbie Series" where I will re-create these little treats for the home cook. My kids are thrilled with the idea as you can imagine, and I think my neighbors are going to like it too since they are the recipients of the sweets I bake.     

These pies are moist, chewy, and filled with a decadent buttercream - sweet, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth perfect.  Put one in a little package, and take it to work or stick it in your child's lunchbox without an ounce of guilt.  Now that's my idea of a mid-day treat. 

Oatmeal Cream Pies

This recipe calls for two types of whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is used in this recipe because of its buttery flavor, and whole wheat flour is used for its high protein count that gives structure to the cookie. Both flours are available at most grocery stores.

Makes: about 24 2-inch pies

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup muscovado (a rich dark-brown sugar)

1/2 cup organic whole cane sugar or sucanat (click here to read more)

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (this one is a good brand to use)

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups rolled oats, pulsed in a food processor until coarsely ground

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F and adjust rack to middle position. Place butter, muscovado and whole cane sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer. Using beater attachment, beat butter and sugars on medium speed until combined, about 1 minute. With mixer on low, add egg and vanilla. Stir together flours, oats, baking soda, sea salt, and cinnamon. Turn mixer on low and slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until incorporated.

Scoop dough using a 1 1/2-inch cookie scoop (if you don't have this kind of scoop you can scoop it out with a spoon, just try and scoop the balls evenly) and put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 11 minutes. Cool to room temperature.  

Buttercream filling

2 eggs

1/2 cup organic whole cane sugar or sucanat
1 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
2 sticks butter, softened, each stick cut into tablespoons

In the bowl of a standing mixer whisk together, eggs, whole cane sugar, vanilla and pinch of salt. Set bowl over pot of simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees, about 5 minutes. Beat egg mixture on medium-high with whisk attachment until light and billowy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add butter one tablespoon at a time. When all of the butter is added it might look curdled, but keep mixing. Turn mixer on high and beat for 1 minute until light and fluffy.

To assemble cookies: Spoon buttercream into a pastry bag with a large tip attached. (If you don't have a pastry bag, simply spoon the buttercream into a ziploc bag and snip one corner off of the bag.) Pipe about 2 tablespoons buttercream onto half of the cookies. Top the frosted cookies with another cookie to create a sandwich.