From Scratch to Scrumptious

When I was a kid, I loved all the Little Debbie snack cakes. Ok, maybe I still love all the Little Debbie snack cakes. But I’m not convinced that “snack cakes” actually qualify as real food anymore. While they hold a special place in my heart, they taste somewhat artificial. Homemade, whether it’s cookies, cakes or oatmeal cream pies, just tastes better.

I’m thrilled with these from-scratch cookies because I think these are exactly the same as the store-bought oatmeal cream pies! (Well, exactly the same minus the artificial aftertaste.)

My husband said they are better than store-bought. Is it funny that I feel slightly offended? I wanted “just the same”, but I guess I’ll take “better” if that’s all he can give me. Either way, my whole family loves these cookies.

My secondary goal was to make a homemade oatmeal cream pie that’s “healthier”. While these aren’t exactly a health food, at least they have no preservatives or unnecessary food dyes. (And, hey, it has oats! That’s healthy, right?)

My family requests oatmeal cream pies year-round, but my favorite time to make this treat is in the summer. I seem to have extra time on my hands for making my kids’ favorite snacks. We pack these in the cooler when we go to the beach. A vacation day-trip and a homemade treat! It’s the stuff memories are made of! Make your own memories with these from-scratch soft and delicious oatmeal cream pies!

Butter: In order to cream your ingredients well, butter needs to be “softened”, meaning sitting out at room temperature for about half an hour. Don’t microwave your butter or it may melt. Melted butter does not cream.

You can use salted or unsalted butter. Either is fine.

Butter-flavored shortening: I love using butter-flavored shortening because you get all the benefits of shortening without losing out on flavor. Because shortening is solid but soft at room temperature, and doesn’t get harder when it’s refrigerated, you have cream that doesn’t melt on the counter and doesn’t get too hard in the fridge.

Don’t have butter-flavored shortening? You can swap it out and use all butter or use plain shortening. If you use plain shortening, the flavor will be slightly different.

Brown sugar: Pack your brown sugar into the measuring cups to measure correctly.

Oats: I recommend using quick oats if you want a texture closest to the store-bought classic. You can substitute rolled oats, but the cookies will be chewier.

Creaming: This is a simple but important technique to master. The dough starts with creaming the butter, shortening and sugars in an electric mixer for 3-5 minutes on medium-high speed. This incorporates tiny air bubbles which makes cookies softer. You’ll know you’ve creamed enough when the mixture turns fluffy and pale.

The first picture shows butter, shortening and both sugars only mixed together slightly. It’s grainy and dark. The second picture shows a well-creamed mixture. It’s silky, fluffy and pale. This is the result you’re aiming for.

Classic cookie size: If you want a cookie more along the size of the classic store-bought variety, use 1 1/2 Tablespoon-sized scoops of dough.

If you don’t have a cookie scoop that size, check your ice-cream scoop. Mine holds 3 Tablespoons. Before I bought cookie scoops, I used my ice-cream scoop to portion out a giant ball of dough and split it in half. It made it a bit more difficult to match cookies for sandwich making, but it was close!

Smaller cookies: If a giant double-decker cookie seems like too much to eat at once, you can make a smaller-sized cookie with a 1 Tablespoon-sized cookie scoop like this Progressive Quick Release Cookie Scoop (Amazon link).

My littlest kids weren’t too happy about getting only a half of a giant cookie, but are perfectly content with a whole, but smaller, cookie.

Measuring the shortening: If you want to scoop 6 Tablespoons of shortening into your bowl for the cream filling, you’re welcome to. There is an easier way, though. Since 1/3 cup is equivalent to 5 1/3 Tablespoons (which is pretty darn close to 6 Tablespoons), you can use a heaping 1/3 cup of shortening.

However, there’s an even easier way to measure the shortening! I prefer measuring by weight. No greasy measuring cups to wash. Plus, you can be as accurate as you want to be. I recommend getting a digital kitchen scale because it makes life easier for measuring many ingredients, shortening being one of them.

Creaming the filling: The cream filling is beaten twice with an electric mixer. First, beat just the butter and shortening. Then beat it again after all the remaining ingredients are added. Both steps help whip up the cream filling to be extra fluffy.

Matching cookies: To make beautiful oatmeal cream pies, start by matching up cookies that are the same size and shape. If you use a cookie scoop, the cookies will be very close to the same size, but some will still be slightly larger or smaller, and some will be perfectly circular while some are somewhat oblong.

I like to match the largest cookies first and the smallest ones next. Once the outliers in size are out of the way, it will be easy to match the medium-sized cookies. Stack each cookie on top of its mate.

Cream filling: I find the easiest way to fill these sandwich cookies is by dispensing the cream from a piping bag. You won’t need a piping tip; just cut off the tip of the bag. With the bottom cookie upside down (flat side facing up), pipe a circle around the outside edge of the cookie. Continue piping in a decreasing spiral until you hit the middle. Place the top cookie over the cream. Press slightly to spread the cream to the edges and bind the cookies together.

Since the cream filling is basically a buttercream frosting, these cream pies have to be stored in a covered container in the fridge. After a few hours of being covered, the cookies will become much softer.

They will stay fresh in the fridge for 3-5 days. Before serving, let the cream pies come to room temperature, about 1 hour.

For longer storage, freeze oatmeal cream pies tightly covered for 2-3 months.